Digital Narrative Tools, Simulation, and Media Convergence - Assignment Example

Digital Narratives Student’s Name Institution Task 3: Digital Narrative Tools Digital narratives are stories that are usually told with the help of computer-based tools. For a story to be referred to as digital, it must have been created and transferred by use of computer tools. Examples of these narratives include hypertexts, web-based stories as well as audio and video podcasts. There are various computer tools and software that can be used to create and transmit such stories to the readers (Choi, 2012). This emergent trend of telling stories has been adopted by various individuals in the media industry as it tends to enhance the transmission of news and other important information to users of various media platforms. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to present the software that looks promising and how it can be used in course projects. Various computer tools such as software are available for users interested in digital narration depending on the nature of the story and how the author wants to transmit it. Some of these tools include Photo Story, ACMI storyboard generator, Toontastic, Adobe Slate and Slidestory. All these tools can be applied in various situations depending on the objectives and the audience of the story being told. From these tools, SlideStory seems to be the most effective in this case as it enables one to make presentations and to present them to the audience in a more effective way. The software gives one the opportunity to combine images, texts, and voice to pass important information through the media (Reinders, 2010). One can combine each image with texts or MP3 format voice narrations. It is easy to install and use the software. One of the advantages of this software is that it is free hence students can easily access and use them without having to pay. When presenting information regarding sports such as soccer, for example, images are essential as it brings out a better picture relating the story being told. It also enhances the concentration of the listener or the reader in cases where pictures are combined with texts. The first step is to sign up, to download the Windows publisher client for free and to install. Once the app has been downloaded and installed, it is essential to collect all the important items and prepare the information that one wants to communicate. One can choose to record their narrative in audio form or to use text. If one opts for audio, it is vital to attach a microphone to the system and record an audio file. This should be done for each slide that will be accompanied by an MP3 voice narration. With all the resources ready and the story aligned in a presentable manner, one can upload it to the SlideStory website. The best way to prepare the presentation is to prepare a PowerPoint presentation and save it as pictures (Choi, 2012). These pictures will be uploaded to the website and the audio added. The last step is to add a title description and tags then share it to blogs or other social media platforms. Task 6: simulation As technology becomes increasingly advanced, some areas of game design have flourished. Advances in simulation and rendering of physics have led to new possibilities and advancement the field of digital storytelling. Simulation is the important logical development of the content of narratives. Procedurally generated narratives or content, however, lacks the quality of grip and dynamism. By definition, simulation is a way of expressing the reality of a situation or an action by literally producing or creating an item functioning in a similar manner to the real object or expressing ideas of the real situation (Frasca, 2003). Digital narrative can incorporate simulation in a number of ways. First, simulation can be used to create the narrative baggage of a digital story. These are the collective behaviors, personal resources and emotional responses a player has to develop in response to a lengthy exposure to narrator’s incentives. Building up this feature a digital story requires the creator to emulate the initial characters’ behaviors, and responses in a way bring the reality to the current situation. Apart from sending the audience into the world of imagination, doing this also enables both the audience and the narrator to adopt a specific style of interaction that closely looks like a plot device for instance. It reduces the cognitive load of both audiences and the narrator enabling complex events to play out easily by enhancing the understanding of all participants. The realism of simulation in interactive narratives is important to educational games giving coherent narrative progression in addition to the realistic learning experience. Laying a simulation approach capable of these benefits can take to a strong autonomic strategy or strong story approach. The strong autonomy techniques advocate that digital narratives be created by simulating the virtual environment occupied by independent characters or agents (Göbel & Malkewitz, 2006). The strong story approach, on the other hands, requires that a single decision-making process should operate as if the narrator were a hypothetical author, selecting the activities of involvement in a centrally coordinated fashion. This results in an interactive and enjoyable session of presentation or gaming. In future, digital narrators should use a digital narrative system that combines simulation elements of the strong story and strong autonomy. This would ensure a story-based experience in which the narrator claims a higher degree of agency. For academic purposes, this post proposes a prototype of such a simulation narrative system known as the IN-TALE, which is characterized by the following elements: Interaction, Narration, Tacit, Adaptability, Leadership, and Experience. A combination of all these attributes gives a mix of reactive agents and declarative story planning in the perspective of a story-based military leader situation. The situation is based on dramatic ideologies and is designed to highlight to the audience pedagogical scenario exposed by simulation. A simulation is a common tool in digital narratives. It has always been in existence through shared such things and activities as toys, storytelling, and gaming as well as through scientific models and cybertexts such as the I-Ching. However, the possibility of simulation has been somehow rare because of technological challenges. It has been very challenging to model composite systems through cogwheels. Logically, the invention of the computer provided a new direction to this situation. Task 7: Media Convergence Social media is a common word in the contemporary learning and social environments. Initially, people used to know only about Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter as the only websites offering digital media platforms. However, with the advent of mobile technology, many social and new media platforms have culled up. Notable includes Weibo, Path, Meipai, WeChat, SnapChat, WhatsApp, Line, IMO, and Vine among others. The development of all these media platforms has created a situation in which multiple media systems coexists leading to a fluid flow of media content across different platform. This situation popularly referred to as media convergence. When designing my digital narrative, the first question that arose in my mind was the target market. In this perspective, I thought about how the target audience would receive the narratives and what their feedback would have been. Thinking in this direction, two important media platforms immediately came up, Facebook and YouTube. While Facebook had the capability of presenting narratives in pictorial, video, and descriptive forms, I preferred YouTube for the video parts because it has larger number users in search of film products which they believe are of high quality. This way I developed a notion that quality would be a priority designing the digital narrative since many audiences peg their faulty claims on the quality aspect. Having understood that Facebook has the biggest number of followers, I preferred it for sharing photos and written descriptions. Other social platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and viber also provide such services, but since they only have a few users, lessening their usage was a brilliant idea. From a personal research, I discovered that many people would prefer to use Facebook, WhatsApp, and YouTube before they think of installing other social networks suchInstagram and Viber. This gives Facebook a chance to have more audience than most media platforms. For it all ranges of its significance, emerging media appears like a double aged sword. In addition to several advantages it offers to prospective producers and filmmakers, the evolving comes with disadvantages as well. Regarding the digital narratives production and marketing project, the new provides a cheaper and easier way to upload films online and to observe those that are already in existence for generation and building of adequate media content. In my perspective, new media is more good than bad. Apart from acting as research gates, these new media platforms cut the cost of project marketing particularly because they are still new in the market made up different consumers and competitor so cutting the cost is a way of promotion. Currently, the media industry becomes increasingly competitive. New media platforms, therefore, have to fight their way lest they are left out or totally lose meaning in the social media. Those unable to stand the buyout forces end up being absorbed by the already established leading to physical convergence. However, being creative in this journey saved me much of the possible challenges of rebranding or disbanding the whole project. As a media content producer, it is important to maintain the tone of originality, creativity and attract to be able to harness a greater proportion of a population. Reference Choi, D. (2012). Digital Storytelling Technology for Developing Schema for ESL/EFL Reading Comprehension. Secondary English Education, 5(1), 3-17. Frasca, G. (2003). Simulation versus narrative. The video game theory reader, 221-235. Göbel, S., Malkewitz, R., & International conference on technologies for interactive digital storytelling and entertainment, TIDSE 2006. (2006). Technologies for interactive digital storytelling and entertainment: Third International Conference, TIDSE 2006, Darmstadt, Germany, December 4-6, 2006 : proceedings. Berlin [etc.: SpringerLink [host Reinders, H. (2010). Digital storytelling in the foreign language classroom. Read More