TOWARDS DIGITAL STORYTELLING FOR CHILDREN
THE EVOLUTION OF STORYTELLING FROM THE MIDDLE AGES
- Middle Ages - Oral Tradition
- 1400-1500's - Instruction
- 1600's - Enjoyable Learning
- 1700's - Introduction of Adventure
- 1800's - Storytelling that Delights
- 1900's - Too Much, Too Fast
- 1970's - Multimedia Mix
Links
Links will be provided for key words and ideas in the essay. They are marked with an asteri in the text but can only be accessed from the link column.
Sesame Street
Fraggle Rock
1970's: the Multi-Media Mix
New technologies which were to have an impact on narrative began to emerge from the late 1800's onward: first photography, then film, radio, television, video and finally--digital media. Book narratives were the basis of many films, radio presentations and television programs when these technologies first appeared, as was oral tradition when books first were printed. Like print before them, each new medium explored how storytelling could best be served within its own boundaries and moved in its own direction.
Book publishers became particularly creative in how they used different media to market their books. By the 1970's a book might have a "multi-media mix" to extend its market reach which included an accompanying audio, a television show, and video . This led to a blurring of the lines between the different media from the children's viewpoint. They could interact with many of their favorite characters through books, audio tapes, television, and video. Often they used all these technologies.
Television series such as Reading Rainbow encouraged book reading by introducing four or five books each episode. Often authors would read their own works and discuss them with children. Children would also describe and critique books. Videos were made of the TV shows and were widely available not only through video stores, but also through bookstores and libraries. (I like the idea of TV and video "encouraging" reading.)
Books were not always written first. In the case of a television series such as The Magic School Bus, sometimes the TV story was written first. For both television and book series, individual stories/episodes were written to a formula by different authors. Though many videos were made from narratives written for entertainment, such as Robert Munsch's stories, series such as Magic School Bus and Sesame Street were instructional and others such as Fraggle Rock or Arthur were often moralistic. These latter programs show the trend towards educational or moral teaching within narrative in the late 1900's. Educational narratives originally received a strong boost when the "Sesame Street Series" was developed in the late 1960's. The trend started by Big Bird, Elmo and their friends, "great stories, lots of fun, good learning", was picked up by and continues strongly in, the next major venue for narrative---the digital medium.
