Narratives in the Age of Media Convergence: From Print to Digital Media

At the dawn of digital revolution, we are confronted with the task of defining how media will change our lives and how we communicate with each other in the years to come. Narrative, as one of the most ancient communication tools, has undergone substantial structural changes. This seminar will investigate how these changes impact the way we read and write. Does the same story conveyed through different media channels signify in the same manner? In other words, what are the differences between a printed story and a digitally presented one? Referred to by some critics as the “late age of print,” this transitional period definitely challenges the traditional roles of both author and reader. Empowered by technological advancements, any reader now has the ability to become an author, publishing her ideas in blogs, revising encyclopedia entries in Wikipedia , creating her own fictional world in virtual communities like Second Life. Can we talk about the existence of narrative in this new environment, or has it metamorphosed into something else? This seminar, then, not only considers how the structure of the text has changed within the last 30 years, but also investigates how stories are written and rewritten in this changing environment.