Digital Storytelling, what a unique way to portray your findings towards an audience.
As I heard from my tutor that we have a research project based on digital storytelling, I was pretty stoked and challenged at the same time. I have to present something I find fascinating about media spaces and showcase them in a creative and informative way.
First thought that comes to mind?
Livestreaming of street dance events.
Let us take a step back and see why this topic is more unique than you might think. Back in the 80s when Hip Hop was just introduced to the world, it was just a type of underground event. Hard to find, probably in some dark abandoned place or even a friend’s house around the block. You would hear stories or through the grapevine on how awesome these underground events were, wishing you could experience it yourself. To hip hop fanatics like myself, these places and events are so historic that they are definitely on my to go to list before I die. If only I could just be able to find these places faster.
Fast forward to the our world now, the digital world. These so called underground events can now be viewed simply on your phone, livestreamed.
Through this research project, I would like to discover the effectiveness of livestreaming street dance events in our world today. Also to observe the changes from being underground to being broadcasted around the world.
Background
In the past, people would only hear about stories about these underground events, or you would have to go yourself. This was a thing of the past. Now we are able to feel the vibe and watch the action in real time through any media platform, with the power of livestreaming. You could be in class, going to work or even in the toilet taking a dump. And you would still wouldn’t miss a piece of the action of the mind blowing moves you were dying to see.
Common livestreaming platforms of street dance events would be either on YouTube, Facebook or even Instagram. A lot of event organizers around the world have started to use livestreaming to promote their events, but the more renowned channels would be Stance and RedBull TV.
I aim to investigate the effectiveness on how livestreaming these niche events have either brought more benefits or harm to the global street dance culture.
Methodology
As I have mentioned before, I myself am I hip hop fanatic, for any element. Whether it is graffiti, emceeing, dj-ing or street dance, I try to involve myself into the scene locally. I have several friends in the street dance community and I also actively participate in street dance events as well. I would gather more information by finding livestreams of certain events and make my street dance friends watch it, to observe their behavior when presented with a livestream. After that, I will ask several questions towards the participants for further investigation. Other than the ethnography study I will conduct towards my friends, I will ask base if off by an auto ethnography experience where I would do the same as watch a street dance livestream see if the experience of being at the event in person and at home have any major differences.
Here are some potential questions that I will ask:
- What do you think about livestreamed events?
- Do you feel the vibe of the event from the livestream?
- What do you think can be improved?
- Does it make you want to go to the event more next time after watching the livestream?
- Any difference from watching playbacks and the livestream?
I will also look into the comment sections of the livestream playbacks on YouTube and Facebook for further research.
Digital Narrative
I will create a YouTube video for this project, using the format of storytelling due to the creative freedom that comes with it.
I will start the video with screenshots and footage taken from the past, regarding street dance events. After the background section, I will proceed with how in our digital world, we can now access underground events with our media platforms. I will include footage from my ethnography study with my participants, with clips of their interview as well.
I may also add voice overs in the video, on top of my own auto ethnography section when I observe street dance livestreams, to create a more catchy and personal touch in the digital narrative.
Due to the formal nature of the project, I will provide consent forms towards the interviewees, for their right of privacy and using their information data in my video.
References
- Zhu, D. (2014, April). Stance. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/stanceelements/
The Erryl Classicz 