R2- Reading Responses

The X, Y, and Z of digital storytelling: Dramaturgy, directionality, and design

The use of the word dramaturgy in this article was pretty odd. When I hear the word, I am immediately brought to theater, and the dramaturge, who is often the backbone of a work in terms of anything and everything from ensuring historical accuracy to assisting the playwright. It’s a very involved job that required absolute attention and great understanding of effective storytelling. Using the word “dramaturgy” in relation to web layout gives a great weight to the involvement of page navigation in the online story-telling process, a weight I’m not sure I agree is entirely deserved. The article’s analysis of page-navigation seemed far more focused on how vertical and horizontal scrolling affects attention span, but does not dig deeply enough into how a form of navigation affects the telling of a story itself in order to call the decision dramaturgical. While navigation may be a small part of the work a web-dramaturge would dive into, the article’s presentation of the decision does not fit deeply enough into the highly-involved story telling that a dramaturge facilitates.

How Stories Deceive

The distinction made in this article between a pathological liar and a con artist like Sammy is fascinating. A pathological lies to relieve an obsessive impulse. Because these lies are satisfying and urge and are often a result underlying psychopathy, their stories easily become grandiose and unbelievable. There is no humanly relatable element tying the lies our own empathies, and therefore to reality. Con artists, however, lie because they have a very specific goal in mind, and can clearly see the path of manipulation they must take to achieve that goal. Con artists must not only possess a deep understanding of people and what moves them generally, but they must, on an individual basis, be able to quickly read and relate to a stranger while presenting themselves as a person you would instinctively want to love, trust, and even nurture.
The con artist is a master of storytelling, and actually this con artist vs. pathological liar comparison is very relatable to why story telling is so important to communicating data. Alone, data is the pathological liar, spewing out facts that feel disconnected, grandiose, and untreatable. There is nothing to trigger empathy in the viewer. The con artist, however, is the one who is able to take that data and give it a story that makes us love it, trust it, and send all our money to it … You could say it takes a con artist’s ability to tap into people’s deepest emotions and manipulate their reactions in order to effectively tell a story using data.