Multimodality and Storytelling
The pros and cons of Instagram for multimodal and multimedial narratives
Storytelling is an integral part of human nature, both as entertainment and a method of documenting events. As the majority of us now turn to the internet for these activities, naturally digital storytelling, defined by Amancio in her 2017 thesis as “a concept that connects ancient practice with the latest available technology,” has gained popularity and influence.
Out of this has come multimodal storytelling, a process which creates narratives by combining different forms of communication. This overlaps with multimedia, which combines different forms of content such as photos, infographics, text, video clips and audio. In a sense, these types of communication redefine the traditional notion of storytelling, which connotes texts and chronological order.
Before I look at my own use of multimodality in storytelling, I’d like to point out its general advantages in the digital world. Firstly, narratives with multiple forms of content are potentially far more engaging than simply text, and appeal to larger audiences and different learning types. They are also likely to offer more audience interaction (in the forms of links, video clips, polls, etc) and are often more time efficient than textual posts, both to view and create.
These are benefits that I have observed whilst using Instagram stories to collect data for my recent uni project. Instagram users create a sort of chronological image gallery, with captions and tags, or post ‘stories’ which delete after 24 hours. Stories can be considered multimodal because their design process on Instagram offers users lots of different features which can be added, such as images, icons, text, emojis, polls, quizzes and more. This is not a new phenomenon- the concept was launched by Snapchat in 2013. Interestingly, Facebook (who own Instagram) tried to buy Snapchat, but failing, evidently decided to adopt stories itself.
My main purpose of creating these was to present polls which related to the themes within my blog. For example, I posted a story asking about people’s use of Snapchat, which I talked about in my post ‘A Free Country’. This week I posted another story about asking people’s use of Covid-related language, which I plan to use in a future post. The stories combined text, images (mainly for backgrounds), polls and graphics.
So what are the pros and cons of Instagram for multimodal storytelling? The main issue I observed is that many viewers stopped viewing before they reached the end of my stories, which can been seen on the viewer stats. Of course, participants losing interest is a risk with any type of story, but I think it is more significant in this case because it is hard to target Instagram stories at a specific audience. My Instagram followers are an eclectic mix of friends, family and peers, which is no indication that they have any interest in my university research. Since on a private Instagram account only your followers can view your story this was also not a good method for growing a narrative’s audience, although this would not be an issue for a public account so would work well for brands or advertising.
Nevertheless, I successfully collected plenty of data from the polls (over 50 for each), meaning there were sufficient levels of reader engagement for my purpose and to support my research. I would not have been able to carry out this objective research over my normal Instagram feed without directing viewers to a different site. Allowing stories, which can combine text, photos, graphics, etc., gives Instagram more variety and stops it from becoming too photojournalistic, like Pinterest or Tumblr. I used the app Canva to create my stories, which was very user friendly and made my posts much more aesthetically pleasing.
Saying this, from both posting my own stories and viewing other people’s, I don’t like the feeling of transience that arises from this kind of multimodal digital storytelling. I suppose because in history narratives were written to be endurable, it seems like creating stories that disappear after 24 hours sort of devalues the whole process. To combat this I added my stories to a ‘highlight’, meaning they remain viewable on my profile, but I do not imagine they will receive much footfall. I therefore think that this method is best for brands or advertising, as they are good for short, time sensitive information, but I believe that if someone wants their content to be remembered and enjoyed fully they would be better of using a platform such as Medium or perhaps Youtube to present their ideas.
What experience have you had using Instagram for this purpose? Have you considered multimodality as a form of storytelling? Please leave your thoughts in the comments!
Thanks for reading.
Amancio, M., 2017. “Put It In Your Story”: Digital Storytelling In Instagram And Snapchat Stories. Masters. Uppsala University.
