The Story of the Unborn

This chapter focuses on a relatively new kind of narrative, concerning storytelling from inside the womb as it offers an inner perspective on both outside social matters and on the first stage of life as well. The author of the given chapter aims to explore the specific features of such a narrative, by comparing the novels of three writers, Pascal Bruckner, Chinghiz Aitmatov, and Ian McEwan, that belong to three different cultural spaces, French, Kyrgyz, and English. The basic elements of a story (plot, setting, characters, point of view, theme, symbolism, conflict, and resolution) are taken into account and their contrastive analysis is meant to reveal some key concepts that define an innovative way to approach literature.

The Viewer-Participant Performing Morality in Interactive Storytelling in Bandersnatch

The present chapter wishes to interrogate the capability of interactive cinema to test, unveil, exercise, and challenge the viewer-participant's moral layout. Looking at Netflix's Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, the chapter mainly explores the implications and outcomes of performing morality in a digital space mediated by a new mode of telling and receiving stories. The analysis looks at possible obstacles in exercising—in a genuine manner—moral imperatives and looks at the nature of the story as well as the format as catalyst for self-reflection and moral awareness. The chapter then explores the possibility that moral conduits are the product of active practice, and that interactive cinema embodies such practice.

Exploring the Effectiveness of Storytelling in Advertising Through Eye-Tracking

From a marketing perspective, storytelling involves creating, through advertising and communication strategies, an image of the company, brand, and products that makes it different from the competition. Advertising literature has shown that good stories have a way of inspiring, entertaining, explaining, and convincing, and can engage the emotional, attentional, and cognitive schemes of the customers. This is the first research that defines and makes an overview of the evolution of eye-tracking systems in the field of advertising which employs storytelling techniques. Particularly, the current chapter identifies the evolution of topics and relations between them, within the field of advertising research. The current study, therefore, advances an agenda for future research and constitutes a starting point for academics and professionals working in the field of advertising who intend to resort to eye-tracking techniques.

Transmedia Storytelling Edutainment and the New Testament Lesson

Storytelling is the most ancient form of teaching that can enhance the learning experience, and transmedia is a technique where elements of a story get dispersed across multiple media with each story creating a cohesive entertainment experience. The storytelling framework is a viable solution to engage a universal audience, and the socio-cultural theory of learning presented underpins how cultural beliefs and attitudes impact instruction and learning. The study explores how the pre-historic practice of transmedia storytelling can be used and practiced by educators. Narratives transverse across media and can be traced back to the presentation of Biblical stories. The Bible story has been told across many different forms of media, from print to icons to stained glass windows. Jesus, the master teacher, used storytelling methods of instruction to convey his message to his learners across different platforms. The chapter explores the parallels between Biblical transmedia and contemporary transmedia and considers transmedia edutainment as a pedagogical practice in higher education.

No More Drama

The undeniable development of the television series sector in recent years has resulted in viewers having access to a large amount of television content, thanks largely to the development of technologies such as the internet and the emergence of video on demand. Given the scarcity of academic works that categorise these television contents, this chapter comes to conceptually delimit the television drama genre, as well as its different sub-genres. With this, the authors seek to centralise in a single academic work the main characteristics of each dramatic sub-genre that causes a series to be ascribed to a certain category, serving as a guide for potential academic works related to this growing sector.

From Overlay to Interplay

This chapter explores the unique characteristics of AR as a visual communication medium while also considering the diverse and potentially powerful meanings that can be created by using it in conjunction with established visual communication devices such as posters. The chapter evaluates a number of current projects that have utilised this type of digital narrative. It also explores the theories of visual communication to understand how posters communicate in order to leverage the same techniques for AR. Using three case studies, the authors examine how AR, when used in conjunction with a printed poster, can subvert the original meaning of the poster to create a new meaning for the viewer and ultimately create the surreal.

Gender and Patriarchy in Turkish Advertising

The present chapter discusses a particular advertisement aired for a bank in Turkey from a semiotic perspective. Advertising as film is visual storytelling. A film has language and form, and is made up of parts that relate to one another in specific ways that affect the audience. Film techniques take on a semiotic function in the process of meaning construction. As a cultural phenomenon, advertisements can reveal hidden meanings, such as gender issues and patriarchal discourse in the case of the analysed advertisement.

People Make Places, What Do Stories Do?

The main objective of this chapter is to explore how cities and regions can use digital storytelling strategies to reach and engage with their target audiences. Despite the growing body of literature regarding digital storytelling, the contributions and examples about regions and cities are still scarce. This chapter analyses the storytelling strategies of promotional campaigns regarding three cities and two regions around the world. Using a theory-driven framework, each storytelling example is dissected and interpreted. This study demonstrates that digital storytelling is worth consideration, as it offers a relevant set of advantages for marketing and communication managers, and enables the development of the place image and a consistent communication of its identity that can be co-created with various stakeholders, including the target audiences. It also shows that there are a diversity of approaches that can be adapted by place branding strategies, namely in terms of narrative, perspectives, and medium components.

Chemistry Edutainment

Creating a fun, interactive, and useful science activity for teaching purposes can be a real challenge, especially if it is addressed to middle-school children. More and more science communicators are employing novel communication techniques to better reach out to their audience. In science communication, storytelling is valuable to sparking interest in science. Given that there are many episodes in the history of science that can serve as inspiration, the authors of this chapter share how they used storytelling, based on a real-life event, to create a science communication activity for middle-school children. Focused on chemistry and ethics, these topics were introduced through hands-on laboratory activities with ethical questions embedded in the story line. This task challenges the students to come up with answers by themselves, through a problem-based learning model. By adding game logic elements to this activity, the authors created a unique form of communicating science, both educational and entertaining, which children appreciated.

Medical Sociology and Storytelling in a Decolonial Context

The use of photovoice for storytelling and as a critical pedagogical tool is still exploratory. Despite calls to rethink, re-imagine, and rework curriculums, many challenges remain in designing assessments that utilize creative storytelling formats that demonstrate an awareness of the social context, history, and lived realities of students. This chapter addresses the outcomes of a classroom-based study that explored whether a photovoice essay, used in a medical sociology undergraduate assessment, facilitated a critical analysis of the social determinants of health by students, and oriented them towards taking action. Existing research on critical pedagogy tends to focus on investigating the feasibility or extent of dialogical exploration of societal hegemonies, and prospects of future transformations between teachers and students in the classroom. This chapter provides an overview of how photovoice and reflective writing are used to create new stories by students in a South African university and how it can be supported.