A presentation delivered at the Story Activism DS9 Festival in Cardiff, April 2015, based on my PhD of the same title. This presentation shows the 5 Phase CDST Method developed for Community Digital Storytelling in the context of a Community Informatics inspired intervention to encourage informal learning and activism around rural issues.

1. Digital Storytelling as a
Community Informatics Approach:
Informal learning and activism in
rural communities of place
Dr Sarah Copeland
@XarahC

2. • Scene-setting
• Problem-setting
• Problem-solving
• Stepped approach
Digital Storytelling as a Community Informatics Approach
Community Digital Storytelling
CDST

3. CDST: Scene-setting
• Digital storytelling as a social movement

4. CDST: Scene-setting
Four attributes (Copeland, 2014)
1. Small-scale, and therefore affordable and accessible; authentic
(Lundby, 2008)
2. Creative self-expression free of critical analysis
(Alexandra, 2008)
3. The potential to change opinion through listening and intimate
communication
(Lambert, 2006; Hartley & McWilliam, 2009)
4. Legitimacy sought through ‘bottom-up’, participatory practice
(Carroll & Rosson, 2007; Day, 2005; Gurstein, 2007; Day & Schuler, 2004)

5. CDST: Problem-setting
• Contemporary rural social issues
Boundaries;
Exploitation;
Gemeinschaft – Gesellschaft;
Representation.

6. CDST: Problem-setting
• Inter-generational imbalance
• Countryside exploitation
• Counterurbanisation
• Voice
• Power play

7. CDST: Problem-solving
• Barriers to engagement
• Ladder of participation
(Arnstein, 1969)
• Stepped process to
problem-solving
Citizen Control
Delegated Power
Partnership
Placation
Consultation
Informing
Therapy
Manipulation
Degrees of
citizen power
Degrees of
tokenism
Non-
participation

8. CDST: Problem-solving
• Authenticity of voice
• Legitimacy of the
project
• Synergy from the
group, process and
artefacts
• A community
commons evolving

9. CDST: Problem-solvingAction!
Activism
Learning
Sense-making
Social Justice
Empowerment

10. CDST: The 5 phase method
1
2
3
4
5
Preparation
Story telling
Story digitisation
Digital story
sense-making
Digital story
sharing
5 Phase CDST Method
1. Participant seeking
2. Topic framing
3. Interview
- Meaningful Maps
5. Workshops
- Observation
- Data gathering
6. Artefact generation
7. Story screening
8. Group discussion / interview
9. Story sharing
- sharing locally
- sharing on-line / globally
4. Story circle

11. In a CI context, the Story Circle prevails

12. Thank you!
References:
• Alexandra, D., 2008. Digital storytelling as transformative practice : Critical analysis and creative expression in the
representation of migration in Ireland. Journal of Media Practice, 9(2), pp.101–112.
• Carroll, J.M. & Rosson, M.B., 2007. Participatory design in community informatics. Design Studies, 28(3), pp.243–261.
• Copeland, S., 2014. Digital Storytelling as a Community Informatics Approach: Informal learning and activism in rural
communities of place. Unpublished thesis.
• Day, P., 2005. Sustainable Community Technology: The symbiosis between community technology and community research.
Journal of Community Informatics, 1(2) .
• Day, P. & Schuler, D., 2004b. Integrating practice, policy and research. In P. Day & D. Schuler, eds. Community Practice in the
Network Society2004. New York: Routledge, pp. 215–229.
• Gurstein, M., 2007. What is Community Informatics (and why does it matter?), Milan: Polimetrica.
• Hartley, J. & McWilliam, K., 2009. Computational Power Meets Human Contact. In J. Hartley & K. McWilliam, eds. Story
Circle: Digital Storytelling Around the World. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 3–15.
• Lambert, J., 2006. Digital Storytelling: capturing lives, creating community 2nd ed., Berkeley: Digital Diner Press.
• Lambert, J., 2009. Where It All Started: The Centre for Digital Storytelling in California. In J. Hartley & K. McWilliam, eds.
Story Circle: Digital Storytelling Around the World. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 79–90.
• Lundby, K., 2008. Introduction: Digital storytelling, mediatized stories. In K. Lundby, ed. Digital storytelling, mediatized
stories: Self-representations in New Media. New York: Peter Lang, pp. 1–17.