Watching Storytelling: Visual Information in Oral Narratives

Oral narratives, though prolific, are increasingly being shared via some form of electronic mediation, and yet they are often glossed over in regard to the study of narrative. This study was designed to address the unique nature of oral narratives focusing on the information channels utilized by participants in their co-creation of stories. A comparative case study was undertaken of three groups who employed a variety of synchronous and asynchronous electronic mediation in their storytelling. Viewed through the lenses of Narratology and Social Presence Theory a combination of participant observation and qualitative semi-structured exploratory narrative interviews were undertaken with participants from 1001 Friday Nights of Storytelling, The Moth, and The Storyteller’s Guild of Second Life. Over three years several hundred stories (via 112 tellers) were observed at 38 storytelling sessions (14 live and in-person; 14 live and virtual; and five each of fixed video and or audio) at numerous venues. During these sessions the telling and listening behaviours of 227 participants were noted, 15 of which were subsequently interviewed. Multiple sources of visual information were observed and identified, three of which were selected for in-depth consideration, namely kinesics, reciprocity, and space. Conclusions derived from this study include that: Visual information shared during storytelling is prolific; Listening is not a passive experience, with reciprocities varying with the mediations utilized; The spaces in which we share stories influence our experiences of said stories; Co-create stories are unique for each participant; and Technological mediation between participants does affect the stories being co-created.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph D

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Library & Information Science

Grantor dc:publisher

The University of Western Ontario

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Ripley, James

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Lynne (E.F.) McKechnie

• Storytelling
• Oral narratives
• Kinesics
• Reciprocity
• Space
• Technological mediation

Language dc:language.iso

en_ca

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/36226

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uwo.scholaris.ca:20.500.14721/36226