Below are eight trends that we have identified in the course and that we believe are of importance for the Future of Storytelling and Storytelling of the Future. Each trend is important for at least a few groups, and sometimes for many project groups.
VIRTUAL
REALITY, AUGMENTED REALITY AND 360o VIDEO STORYTELLING
In the
future, stories will be told in a way that involves the audience to a higher
degree. This can be done by using technologies such as virtual reality,
augmented reality and 360o video storytelling and these technologies
will be simple to use and easily accessible. Utilizing these technologies to
tell stories, the audience will to higher extend than today “experience”
content such as sports events, concerts or in-depth news reporting.
BIG DATA
AND DATA JOURNALISM
Very large
amounts of collected data (“big data”) will aid storytelling in the future. The
amount of data that is collected about virtually everything in society is growing
exponentially each year. The challenge is to present stories based on this
information in new and compelling ways or to develop and explore “big data
storytelling” – a genre that hardly exist today.
MOBILE, AUDIO
AND VIDEO
An
increasing part of storytelling in the future will be told via mobile devices,
and preferably by using video and audio. This move towards increased mobile,
video and audio contents means that the proportion of text-based, written
information is expected to decrease in the future compared to audio and video.
INTERACTIVITY
Storytelling
in the future will preferably be done by using interactive tools. This means
that the consumer prefers to interact with the story or the storyteller in various
ways, for example through computer games or by exploring and interacting with different
kinds of interactive stories. It might also be the case that the loop between
the storyteller (journalist) and the reader (viewer, listener, gamer, consumer
etc.) will become tighter.
SPREADABILITY
AND CO-CREATION IN SOCIAL MEDIA
Stories
will more easily be spread “laterally” among readers, users or consumers in the
future and social media will play an important role in this process. With the
proliferation of smartphones (cameras), users will also become more involved in
the co-creation of content and eye-witness reporting is one example of this
trend.
FILTER
BUBBLES, PERSONALIZED STORYTELLING AND POINT OF VIEW
People will
to a higher degree consume media content that is adapted and filtered to fit
their particular interests. Finding stories that to a higher extent corresponds
to my particular interests and points of view as well as a community of others
who share my opinions can be perceived as both empowering and liberating. The
downside is that being enclosed in such “filter bubbles” and “echo chambers” will
make it more difficult to understand others’ sometimes slightly and at other
times radically different perspectives. It might also mean that we will miss
out on broader perspectives of certain issues, on topics that that we don’t
know we are interested in and in topics that we should be interested in, for example “boring”, uncomfortable or
difficult issues that are of societal importance.
HUMAN
SENSES
The human
senses will be used in the future to a higher degree when it comes to conveying
stories and media content. New technologies will be presented that enhance our
human senses in different ways.
SHORTER
ATTENTION SPAN
Peoples’ attention span has decreased and will continue
to get even shorter in the future. Most viewers, listeners and readers will
have little patience for long news stories and media content that demands a
heavy up-front investment in terms of time and attention. This will have
serious implications for storytelling in terms of what kinds of stories can and
will be told in the future and will spur the development of new genres of
simplifying and telling stories succinctly. It might also mean that it will be
hard to tell stories that are inherently complex (for example the background to
a conflict) unless you “lure” or entice people to engage in long,
time-consuming stories
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