Reading the article Youth Culture and Digital Media: New Literacies for New Times allowed me to contemplate the value of digital stories today.  The article discusses an event in Oakland, California that showed a series of digital stories on various subjects created by youth in the area.  Although I made a digital story last year for a class, I didn't consider the value that it had for both the creator and the audience.  A digital story allows the creator to utilize their creativity by making connections with images and how they portray or enhance the message in the digital story.  The music element of a digital story allows students to use their musical talents to compose their own musical pieces.  In today recession, education boards have the tendency to limit the funding to music and art departments in schools.  However, digital stories thrive off the music and art to evoke greater emotion from audience and to captivate the audience's attention.  In addition to the audio and visual aspects, the message is what is the primary focus of the digital story.  With a limitation of time to express one's message, a student must make their message as intriguing and concise as possible.  This helps a student to improve his or her writing by cutting out the unnecessary details and to get to the core of their purpose in creating their digital story.  Digital stories are limited in their length in order to hold the audience's attention for a reasonable amount of time.  Because we are in a new age of technology, digital stories are a great way to enhance a student's message for their community because the audio, images, and tone create a more effective piece of work than an essay in black ink on a sheet of paper.


Youth Culture and Digital Media: New Literacies for New Times