the story circle is a model of how to hold divergent experiences, perspectives and opinions as equally valid in the same space. (digital storytelling facilitator)
Benefits to the digital storytelling approach to community-based research design:
  • Establishes a critical mass among the “subjects” which helps to balance the power dynamic between the facilitator team/researchers and the community of interest.  This is underscored by having community members participate as a co-facilitators.
  • Enables participants to engage with one another in critical reflection, as well as share and compare/contrast experiences in ways that may illuminate issues of identity, meaning, solidarity, etc.​
  • Provides an opportunity to identify additional community partners from among the participant storytellers to be involved as partner knowledge producers (e.g., co-authors).
​How do we authorize ourselves to tell someone else’s story?  The digital storytelling model can help to illuminate our own positionality as researchers, as well as inform methods for working with communities with humility.  The digital storytelling approach can serve to creatively unsettle the researcher/subject dynamic.  
Click for a transcript of Wynne Maggi's story and read facilitator Daniel Weinshenker's piece reflecting on how Wynne's story surfaced....
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More Voices:  The International Society for Ethnology and Folklore hosts Ethnological Sensations, featuring digital stories by cultural researchers who describe moments of personal insight into their work in ethnology or folklore....