Stories tell us? Political narrative, demes, and the transmission of knowledge through culture

This paper compares two institutions of storytelling, mainstream national narratives and self-represented digital storytelling. It considers the centenary of World War 1, especially the Gallipoli campaign (1915) and its role in forming Australian ‘national character’. Using the new approach of cultu...

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Main Author: Hartley, John
Format: Journal Article
Published: Routledge Taylor & Francis 2015
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/40210
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author Hartley, John
author_facet Hartley, John
author_sort Hartley, John
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper compares two institutions of storytelling, mainstream national narratives and self-represented digital storytelling. It considers the centenary of World War 1, especially the Gallipoli campaign (1915) and its role in forming Australian ‘national character’. Using the new approach of cultural science, it investigates storytelling as a means by which cultures make and bind groups or ‘demes’. It finds that that demic (group-made) knowledge trumps individual experience, and that self-representation (digital storytelling) tends to copy the national narrative, even when the latter is known not to be true. The paper discusses the importance of culture in the creation of knowledge, arguing that if the radical potential of digital storytelling is to be understood – and realised – then a systems (as opposed to behavioural) approach to communication is necessary. Without a new model of knowledge, it seems we are stuck with repetition of the same old story.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-402102017-09-13T14:00:16Z Stories tell us? Political narrative, demes, and the transmission of knowledge through culture Hartley, John This paper compares two institutions of storytelling, mainstream national narratives and self-represented digital storytelling. It considers the centenary of World War 1, especially the Gallipoli campaign (1915) and its role in forming Australian ‘national character’. Using the new approach of cultural science, it investigates storytelling as a means by which cultures make and bind groups or ‘demes’. It finds that that demic (group-made) knowledge trumps individual experience, and that self-representation (digital storytelling) tends to copy the national narrative, even when the latter is known not to be true. The paper discusses the importance of culture in the creation of knowledge, arguing that if the radical potential of digital storytelling is to be understood – and realised – then a systems (as opposed to behavioural) approach to communication is necessary. Without a new model of knowledge, it seems we are stuck with repetition of the same old story. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/40210 10.1080/22041451.2015.1042424 Routledge Taylor & Francis fulltext
spellingShingle Hartley, John
Stories tell us? Political narrative, demes, and the transmission of knowledge through culture
title Stories tell us? Political narrative, demes, and the transmission of knowledge through culture
title_full Stories tell us? Political narrative, demes, and the transmission of knowledge through culture
title_fullStr Stories tell us? Political narrative, demes, and the transmission of knowledge through culture
title_full_unstemmed Stories tell us? Political narrative, demes, and the transmission of knowledge through culture
title_short Stories tell us? Political narrative, demes, and the transmission of knowledge through culture
title_sort stories tell us? political narrative, demes, and the transmission of knowledge through culture
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/40210