Page 184 - AC/E's Digital Culture Annual Report 2015

Cultural business models on the Internet184And the Internet is partly to blame for this, for a number of reasons:1. We publish many more stories, there are many publishing platforms, we are affected by many more stories with all their potential;2. We carry around with us instruments that provide immediate and easy access to many types of stories;3. The narrative potential at storytellers’ disposal is much greater, technology makes it possible to tell stories that did not previously exist;4. The purpose of stories is to engage, in themselves or through a system of values, and the Internet is the ideal place for this;5. The emotional impact of stories can be shared in real time and, above all, it can be measured;6. The potential of stories can be renewed, rediscovered and reactivated, because the potential audience to whom they can be told is huge, greater than ever.What is more, what we expect of stories is changing or has already changed. As Frank Rose rightly pointed out (Schumpeter and the Future of Media1, The Milken Institute Review, 2013), we are increasingly taking for granted that stories• are interactive,• are available always and anywhere and• transport us inside them, are immersive.In short, the Internet has equipped stories with new instruments; more specifically, it has added a number of contextual elements (how content is accessed, possibility of relating to it in real time, simultaneous use and incorporation of several languages) that have paved the way for experimentation with the creation of stories and their enjoyment.The Internet has equipped stories with new instruments, it has paved the way for new territories where anything can be told as a story.So much so that we do not even know what to call a person who “enjoys” stories: user, reader, spectator, listener, visitor. A completely new term will probably be coined in the near future to encompass all these meanings.The new territories of storytelling are a place where digital technological innovation has added many possibilities to the narrative techniques with which we were familiar; the possibilityof using new structures, new forms and new languages has given rise to a period of experi- mentation that is only just beginning.The self-publishing phenomenon has exploded in several directions: from the many platforms where we all publish stories or, more commonly microstories, daily, to self-published e-books or famous authors who have opted for self-pub- lishing after working out the figures. A hitherto unseen quantity of texts, videos, podcasts, images and illustrations.The digital age is transforming storytelling