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IntroductionWe know that good communication is atwo-way process. To engage the public andhave an impact on the people who shapepolicy we need real stories, told by peoplein their own words, on their own terms.But there is an inherent tension betweenmaking a communication product thatspeaks for itself – which is powerful enoughto elicit a strong emotional response froman audience or change their views – andone where the emphasis is on the integrityof the process. A process that is concernedwith engagement and voice has participa-tion at its core. A process overly concernedwith the quality of the final product willprivilege this end at the expense of themeans by which it is arrived.

New digital tools somewhat change thisas, for example, they make constructingvisual arguments more accessible andaffordable to ‘non-experts’. But producingfantastic products from truly participatoryprocesses is just the beginning. How do wethen get the right people with influence to

see or hear these arguments? And how dowe ensure that desired changes are thenmade?

This article looks at a particular partic-ipatory methodology – Digital Storytelling(DST) – and how it can be used in a devel-opment setting to draw out stories andengage both storytellers and their futureaudiences. Through this example, I exam-ine the extent to which it is possible topractice communication that is both trulyparticipatory and produces ‘useable’ results– communication as engagement ratherthan communication as marketing.

Participatory processes such as DST

by TESSA LEWIN

Digital Storytelling8

A story circle at a Dhaka workshop.

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In: "Participatory Learning and Action". 2011/63. Online: http://pubs.iied.org/14606IIED.html

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allow NGOs to listen to, and learn from,the people and the communities withwhom they work. They also enable theseNGOs to use these stories to lobby andadvocate on particular issues. For NGOsinterested in increasing awareness andunderstanding of a particular issue, or ingenuinely exploring how best they cansupport the communities with whom theywork, DST offers a fun and empoweringmeans.1

What is Digital Storytelling?Digital Storytelling is a methodology thatwas developed in the mid-90s at the Centrefor Digital Storytelling in San Francisco.2

It has been widely used since then byactivists, researchers and artists. The

process involves intensive workshopsduring which participants develop apersonal narrative, usually around threeminutes long. They then record and illus-trate this narrative with still images orphotographs. The final product is a shortfilm, which has been produced and editedby the narrator. A first person voice is usedin the narration.

Pathways of Women’s Empowerment isan international research consortium thatuses creative communication at everystage, both to broaden engagement and tosynthesise ideas for influence.3 In Novem-ber 2008, the Pathways communicationteam was involved in the Feminist Tech-nology Exchange instigated by APC (theAssociation for Progressive Communica-

Participants building their egg mobile in the ‘egg game’ icebreaker at a Dhaka workshop.

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1 There are numerous online resources on Digital Storytelling. See e.g.:http://tinyurl.com/dst-10-steps. Full URL: www.socialbrite.org/2010/07/15/digital-storytelling-a-tutorial-in-10-easy-steps and www.storycenter.org/cookbook.pdf2 Every element of this process is ‘digital’ – i.e. enabled by computer technology – andparticipants are able themselves to control each stage. It is the access to relativelyaffordable technology that has made this methodology possible.3 The consortium comprises activists and researchers based at universities and researchunits in South Asia, Latin America, West Africa and the Middle East – more details can befound at www.pathwaysofempowerment.org

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tions). Two members of the team took partin the Digital Storytelling track and wereso profoundly impressed by the experienceand the methodology, that they beganlobbying within Pathways to launch ourown digital story project.

DST is both about enabling people totell stories and enabling others to listen tothose stories. The combination of visualimages and first person audio narrative iscompelling. It is hard not to listen to thesestories, and they are generally far moreaccessible than the academic or legal docu-ments that often articulate policy debates.Some argue that Digital Storytelling is a‘feminist’ methodology, in that researchparticipants control the way in which theirstories are represented, and through theprocess learn new skills (see Box 1). Soresearchers are ‘giving back’ to the partici-pants, not merely extracting data for theirresearch. Digital Storytelling has often

been used with groups that have experi-enced stigma or violence. They experiencethe process of telling and constructing theirnarratives as therapeutic, empowering andsolidarity-building. In southern Africa, forexample, workshops have been held forpeople affected by the stigma surroundingHIV and AIDS.4 In Palestine, workshopshave been held with marginalised youth inrefugee camps.5

Digital Storytelling workshops –introducing the methodologyThe Pathways team first used the method-ology in Bangladesh in 2009. We ran threeDigital Storytelling workshops, facilitatedby an international team, between Novem-ber 2009 and February 2010: two inDhaka and one in the Chittagong HillTracts. Participants included Pathwaysresearchers from Dhaka, universitystudents, local government officials,

Participant working on her storyboard.

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in Box 1: DST – a ‘feminist’ methodology?

There is much debate about whether or not it ispossible to call a methodology feminist. Withoutgoing into details of the debate, I believe thatthere are tools that can be used in feminist ways,to protect and promote women’s human rights. Digital storytelling lends itself extremely well tofeminist projects. The process of women creatingtheir own digital story is designed to transformtheir ‘inner’ embodied worlds, as well as have animpact on ‘outer’ material or structuralconditions. In articulating their stories, thewomen are developing both technical andcreative skills, and confidence.

The collaborative nature of the workshops,and the sharing of each other’s stories, helps thewomen develop a sense of solidarity with eachother. They are ‘not alone’ in their struggles. Thiskind of transformative learning process followsin the tradition of Freire and others, who see thedevelopment of personal critical consciousnessas a necessary precursor to action for socialchange.

4 This was part of an initiative funded by the Open Society working with the Centre forDigital Storytelling and Women’s Net. More details can be found here:http://tinyurl.com/sa-hiv-workshop. Full URL:http://storiesforchange.net/event/open_society_initiative_for_southern_africa_hiv_stigma_workshop.5 Voices Beyond Walls project. See: www.cs.uiowa.edu/~hourcade/idc-workshop/sawhney.pdf and www.voicesbeyondwalls.org

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women’s rights activists, peace activists,staff of local NGOs and performers fromthe Chittagong Hill Tracts.6

The three workshops enabled partici-pants to learn about the methods anddevelop their own digital stories. Peoplelearnt through doing: creating, editing andshowing their own digital stories together.Participants were told about the processbefore the workshops. They were asked tothink through possible stories and bringrelevant materials with them (such asphotographs). Where this was not possible,participants drew illustrations to accom-pany their stories, or persuaded theircolleagues to do so. Some participants alsotook photographs at the workshop.

After initial icebreakers, participantswere introduced to the Digital Storytellingprocess and shown several digital storiesshowcasing a variety of narrative devices.While showing digital stories we talkedabout confidentiality and ethics anddiscussed what might happen to the storiesafter the workshop. We also looked at howother organisations had used stories indifferent contexts. In the workshop forPathways researchers, we also introducedvarious DST web resources and looked in-depth at the history of its development as amethodology, anticipating that they mightuse DST in their future work.

We were nervous about showing toomany completed stories for fear of influ-encing participants’ own presentations oftheir stories. However, we all agreed after-wards that we could have shown more, asthe discussions that came out of the screen-ings were extremely useful, and theparticipants found the stories inspiringrather than prescriptive.

Creating digital storiesThe story circle is the point in the work-shops when participants start to get theirteeth into the process. The idea is thatthrough publicly articulating the story it

begins to emerge and, as others respond toit and participants pick up on new ideasand narrative devices, their stories arerefined.

Each participant outlined their broadideas for their story to the rest of the groupand then fleshed out the details of the storyin smaller groups or pairs. Often the storiesthat people ended up telling were not theones that they set out to tell.

Once participants had structured, writ-ten and edited their stories, or shared themwith others in the group, they rehearsedand recorded themselves narrating theirstory. Meanwhile, others began the searchfor supporting visual material and music(bearing copyright issues in mind). Partic-ipants who didn’t have photographs usedthis time to illustrate their stories.

With a clear sense of their story struc-ture, and with the necessary audio

Box 2: Digital story workshops: the basicsteps

• Ice breaker: relaxing the participants andgetting them to feel more comfortable with thefacilitators and other participants.• Explaining the process: looking at examples ofdigital stories. There is always debate amongstfacilitators about the timing of this – some feelthat it is important to give participants concreteexamples of what they will be doing, others feelthat this may overly influence participants’creativity.• Story circle: participants outline their ideas tothe group – normally followed by small groupwork where participants refine and structure theirnarrative. This process is very important and it isvital to spend enough time on it so thatparticipants are happy with their stories.• Recording the audio narrative: This is usuallydone using a voice recorder and some basic audiosoftware (Audacity is the most popular free, opensource software).• Storyboarding: Working out which images touse at which stage of the story.• Editing: putting the audio and the imagestogether – most commonly done using WindowsMovie Maker.• Rendering: Exporting the final story as a moviefile that can be uploaded or copied.

6 More details about the Chittagong workshop and the stories can be found here:www.thedailystar.net/magazine/2010/06/02/education.htm

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segments recorded, we began the editingprocess. In some workshops, participantscreated a storyboard of the visuals in prepa-ration for the edit. Editing was done usingWindows Movie Maker, as it is the mostcommon simple video-editing tool.

The last phase of the process was oftenrather frenetic, as people struggled to putthe final touches to their creations. But welearnt to make sure to keep enough time forscreening, as this gives participants valuableinsight into the thoughts of the other partic-ipants – and the benefit of seeing their ownstory on screen in public, which is always amoving experience. We also found it worth-while to keep time aside to talk through thestories and facilitate a group discussionabout their feedback and reactions.

What we learnt about the process ofstorytellingThe DST process allows a reflective spacethat not many people are given, or able totake time for. Beyond that, the act of tellingone’s story can be healing and empower-

ing. Participants actively construct andreconstruct themselves and their storiesthrough the process of narration. And thenthe stories are shared, and the ‘audience’take the narrator seriously – the feeling thatone is being actively listened to isprofoundly important.

As with every truly participatory process,getting the best out of DST takes commit-ment. It involves people using unfamiliartechnology and developing personal stories,which takes time. Our first two workshopswere compressed into three days, which wasnot long enough. The next workshop wasfive days long and much more coherent as aresult. It is also worth budgeting additionaltime for the unexpected technical hitchesthat invariably accompany the use of tech-nical equipment. Seven out of the elevencomputers in the Chittagong computer labo-ratory could not be used.

Another interesting element of theDST project process was how it disruptedour own organisation’s age and powerhierarchies. Junior members of the team

Sohela Nazneen discusses story structure in one of the Dhaka story circles.

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in Bangladesh led the project and taughtthe senior researchers. Because youngerteam members were more confident withthe technology, the usual age hierarchieswere reversed. I would argue that this shifthad implications beyond the DST work-shop, in increasing both the confidence ofthe younger members of the team and theolder members’ respect for their work.

Using the digital storiesI have talked about the process and why itis valuable, but what about the product?The end result is usually a short video,made by a first-time director, often onewho has never used video or computerequipment before. It is not the technicalquality but the content which has mostimpact. What is interesting about thesestories is related to the positionality of theircreators.

So far, the stories generated throughPathways of Women’s Empowerment havebeen used to give policy makers a sense ofthe textured, everyday reality of the women

storytellers, from a variety of backgrounds.But using the stories can be tricky, espe-cially when moving to different contexts.One highly entertaining story, generated ata workshop in Dhaka, was not consideredappropriate to show to participants in theChittagong Hill Tracts because the narratorwas ‘too upper class’ and therefore her storywould not resonate with the participants.Another story, though aesthetically beau-tiful, was seen as ‘too flat’, with littledramatic tension or direct linkage to‘policy’ or ‘research’ issues. In one of theChittagong stories, there was a disjuncturebetween one narrator’s understanding ofhistory, in particular local violence, and theresearchers’ understanding of that history.The researchers felt that using the storycould both compromise the researchers,and possibly incite political unrest.

In all of these cases, the fact that thefinal product was not necessarily of use toPathways in a particular context does notundermine the significance of the processof their production.

Team celebrates egg landing in the ‘egg game’ icebreaker, Dhaka.

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However, it is worth bearing in mindthat if a research or communicationprocess is to be truly participatory and yielda ‘useful’ product, it is likely that theprocess will need to be iterative and timeconsuming. If the audio narrative of a digi-tal story is well recorded, it is alwayspossible to spend time after the workshoprefining the video edit. Some of the partic-ipants we worked with, who had access tocomputers outside the workshop setting,planned to ‘perfect’ their stories on theirown, after the workshop. It would havebeen useful to have the resources to do thiswith them and to further ‘polish’ the visualelements of the digital stories.

The impact and influence of digitalstoriesPeople are inherently story-driven – theway we understand the world is throughnarrative. First person stories are verypowerful and emotive, particularly whenthey offer us a view on the world that wehave not encountered previously. Becausethere are so few authentic indigenousvoices in mainstream media, DST providesus with genuine, non-stereotypical andoften unexpected representations ofpeople, gender roles and relationships.These representations often contradictdominant images of both men and women.These stories should not be seen as justanecdotal but as a potential source ofchange for both creators and viewers. Ifthey can be used to support, amplify orbetter articulate a policy campaign thenthey can be extremely influential.

There is a growing body of literatureasserting the importance of using non-text-based policy arguments. In a policy culturewhere women and girls in particular areincreasingly identified as drivers of – orresponsible for – broad social change ratherthan as individuals with their own needsand differences, and where ‘evidence’

means statistical, quantitative data, bring-ing real people back into the picture seemsever more important. Understanding andarticulating the specific, nuanced stories ofindividual injustices are vital if we are tomake any progress towards substantiveand sustainable social change. Otherwiseordinary people are in danger of beingrendered invisible by the very people whopurport to act on their behalf.

How you assess the capacity of DigitalStorytelling as a process to catalyse orcreate change depends to a large degree onyour theory of change. Most practitionersaccept that policy change happens both informal ‘policy spaces’ and in the broaderenvironment within which these ‘spaces’sit. If I want to influence change around aparticular issue I need to address not onlythese formal spaces, but also their broaderenvironment. There are numerous cases ofnew legislation, for example, which cannotbe adequately implemented because thesocial environment within which it oper-ates is not adequately receptive to thechanges. South Africa’s progressive consti-tution is a good example of this. It was thefirst in the world to outlaw discriminationbased on sexual orientation. This has not,however, stopped the horrific cases of‘corrective rape’ that continue to be a threatto South African lesbians.

Another example is the legal reformkhul in Egypt – which gives women accessto a ‘no fault’ divorce, provided they give uptheir financial rights. Khul has helpedsome women extract themselves fromabusive marriages. But divorce, includingkhul, is still very taboo in Egypt. ‘It’s impor-tant as a rights-giving mechanism – butwhat can it do to change how people thinkabout gender norms?’7

Because of Digital Storytelling’s emotivepower and its participatory approach, it isan excellent tool to build awareness,strengthen groups with a shared agenda or

7 Mulki Al-Sharmani talking at the Birds Eye View film festival in 2011 about her researchon Islamic legal reform in Egypt. See:www.pathwaysofempowerment.org/Familycourts.pdf.

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facilitate mutual understanding amongstthose who do not. Women’s Net and theSonke Gender Justice Network in SouthAfrica have used DST to address complexissues around gender and HIV/AIDS.Their work with digital stories has helpedto build community solidarity, break downprejudices, facilitate public debate andinform organisational priorities,approaches and policies.

In Uganda, Engender Health (withSilence Speaks and St. Joseph's Hospital)has used DST in communities with genitalfistula to develop nuanced policy imple-mentation strategies that have at theirheart a strong understanding of the manyand varied factors that affect these women.8

DST has been used similarly to informapproaches to mental health problems inthe UK National Health Service (NHS)

and to explore the complex dynamics ofinstitutionalised racism in the US.

DST, learning and changeThrough constructing a story, narratorsare pushed to articulate a position in anengaging and efficient way. This processis likely to help clarify their thoughts andin doing so lead to further engagement oraction. Participants regularly set out totell a particular story and then, to theirsurprise, find themselves telling anotherone entirely. This can be extremely reveal-ing as to where their true convictions lie.Freidus and Hlubinka (2002) talk abouthow through the group working alongsideeach other crafting their digital storiesand influencing each other, there is oftena meta narrative that develops in thegroup.

All participants and trainers from the two Pathways digital storytelling workshops after the final screening, Dhaka.

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8 Genital fistula is a painful and uncomfortable condition, usually caused by difficultchildbirth, and that leaves women with chronic incontinence. Read more on thestorytelling project mentioned:www.engenderhealth.org/our-work/maternal/digital-stories-uganda-fistula.php

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DST genuinely has the capacity tocontribute to community building, throughthe space it offers for reflection andthrough the process within a group. But itis also because the story can then be shared.By giving people a platform and tools toarticulate a personal story, DST can in itselfbe transformative, particularly in severelymarginalised communities – not only forthe storyteller, but for their friends, family,colleagues or NGO workers and activistsfortunate enough to see it.

The potential for DST to impact onpeople's immediate social environmentsand their individual capacity to makechange is fairly clear. They also have thepotential to disrupt organisational ortho-doxies and hierarchies. But as the ripplesof the immediate personal impact of digitalstories extend outwards, away from theoriginal context, they tend to get weakerand less influential. The digital stories needto be supported within wider processes oflobbying or learning, and with comple-mentary material which clearly identifies

and explains some of the issues in abroader sense.

An individual digital story can enablesomeone to articulate her views directly tosomeone on the other side of the world.This makes for very powerful viewing anddoes not necessarily need an intermediaryto interpret and relay the material. If it isdone well, it should speak for itself. Havingsaid this, to influence organisational think-ing and learning more widely, the storyneeds to be linked into larger processeswith more voices or analysis. Advocatesneed to think carefully about how to talk tothe issues raised by the stories, and linkthem to concrete concerns or perhapsbroader campaigns.

As other articles in this section high-light, there are tensions inherent in usingthis kind of material out of context and outof the control of the narrator/editor. Butwith care and respect, the power of thesedigital stories can have enormous value toorganisational and individual processes oflearning and understanding.

CONTACT DETAILSTessa Lewin Communications Manager Participation Power and Social Change TeamInstitute of Development StudiesUniversity of SussexBrightonBN1 9REUKEmail: T.Lewin@ids.ac.uk

REFERENCESFreidus, N. and M. Hlubinka (2002) ‘Digital storytelling for reflective

practice in communities of learners.’ ACM SIGGROUP Bulletin Vol.23:2. August 2002. Online: http://tinyurl.com/dst-freidushlubinka.Full URL: http://llk.media.mit.edu/projects/channelc/crcp-stories/freidus-hlubinka.pdf