디지털 스토리텔링 시대의 내러티브 = Narrative in the Age of Digital Storytelling

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Information and communication technology(ICT) development has an influence on each corner of our lives beyond economic, social and cultural perspectives. Cyberspace used to be only hallucination as described in William Gibson `s novel but now has become a kind of reality, namely, virtual reality where a wide variety of stories are told and enjoyed among different people and with different media. I interpret the `Internet` as `人(people) 터(place or space) Net,` the term I coined, meaning the place where people gather`. Digital narrative has been mainly discussed surrounding its distinctive features from those of traditional printed narrative so far. My research explored two problems inherent in this discourse of computer mediated narrative: narrative polarization in association with digital divide and misunderstanding about digital storytelling. The recent surveys on Internet uses and Internet penetration in Korea, issued by Korean Ministry of Information and Communication, showed that 70% of Korean households have Internet connection and teens and twenties are the major net users. These dominant users also comprise a big portion of computer game players and fantasy and martial arts) novel fans. Games and fantasy fiction are the narratives most of fifties something have the lowest opinion on. This group prefers traditional style writings including T-speculative novels. This coincides with digital use gap between the first demographic group and those aged 50+. Storytelling seems to be at the center of recent digital narrative, giving a wrong message it is made possible with computer tools. Storytelling has a far longer tradition than computer and it is one of the most popular pastime started with oral storytelling way before computer generated interactive stories, or storytelling online. Printed narrative and digital narrative appear to be disconnected, creating chasm in human narrative history. However, it is not disconnection but evolution.