1:3 – Ethics in Storytelling
by VictoriaWoo
Question 7
At the beginning of this lesson I pointed to the idea that technological advances in communication tools have been part of the impetus to rethink the divisive and hierarchical categorizing of literature and orality, and suggested that this is happening for a number of reasons. I’d like you to consider two aspects of digital literature: 1) social media tools that enable widespread publication, without publishers, and 2) Hypertext, which is the name for the text that lies beyond the text you are reading, until you click. How do you think these capabilities might be impacting literature and story?
Social media has revolutionized how we interact with stories through an array of customizable platforms available to anyone and everyone. Whether these stories be fact or fiction, in written or oral form, the very fact that mediation is no longer a requirement for publishing these stories means that they exist in great quantities online (just look at how many stories this fan fiction website contains). But what about the quality of these stories and their impact? As demonstrated continually in this week’s Edward Chamberlin reading, stories are vitally important and may even carry a certain moral weight. And so, the fact that anyone can publish an unmediated story on social media, I think, raises concerns about the morality of telling these stories.
In continuing with Professor Paterson’s point that stories are highly interconnected to time and place, perhaps it could be suggested that imaginary stories and real stories each have respective times and places to be told. However, according to Chamerblin, all stories are an intersection upon which imagination and reality are brought together, so I suppose it would be more accurate to say that predominantly imaginary and predominantly real stories each have their respective time and place to be told (3). To highlight this point, I’d like to compare storytelling on GoFundMe to (for simplicity’s sake) a cliché instance of storytelling around a campfire.
GoFundMe advertises their website as a platform to share stories, attract support, and create fundraising campaigns. Place, in this context, is the actual webpage which advertises one’s story. The time to do so, as indicated by the website’s FAQ, is during “life’s important moments” including for funerals or memorials. Given the contextual cues of place and time as indicated by the website, it’s fairly safe to say that sharing a predominantly imaginary story would be an immoral use of the website. It would even seem to be an immoral use of story as a medium alone. And while instances of this kind of violation are relatively uncommon, they do unfortunately exist and can be facilitated through social media. Hyperlinking, an integral tool used in social media, may also facilitate immoral use of storytelling; GoFundMe, in fact, encourages its users to garner support (money) from friends and family by linking and sharing their stories via the website’s “built in connections to Facebook, Twitter, & Email.”
In a different context of time and place, though, a predominantly imaginary story may be more morally appropriate. For example, on a cadet camping excursion, around a campfire, a mythical tale told in the dark of the night would most likely not violate the sanctity of storytelling, nor give rise to questions of morality.
What I’ve ultimately articulated in this blog post (or at least tried to), is that it is not solely the degree of truth or falsehood in a story which dictates the morality of telling the story; rather, it is both the degree of truth or falsehood as well as the specific context of time and place that are integral in delineating whether it is moral or not to tell it.
The anonymity of social media coupled with its widespread popularity means, to me, that immoral uses of these platforms (especially in how stories are told) may become increasingly pervasive in time. Although this is perhaps a cynical view to hold, I do still believe that social media is mostly advantageous. As with anything else, the misuse of social media is ultimately a problem of the individuals misusing it, though it is still important to be wary of how these platforms may facilitate or even incentivize their misuse.
Works Cited
Chamberlin, J. Edward. “If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories?: Finding Common Ground” Toronto: A.A. Knopf Canada, 2003. Print.
“Common Questions” GoFundMe. n.d. Web. 20 May 2016.
“Harry Potter Fanfiction: The Story Continues.” n.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2016.
Paterson, Erika. “Lesson 1.2 Story & Literature.” ENGL 470A Canadian Studies: Canadian Literary Genres May 2016. University of British Columbia, 2016. Web. 20 May 2016.
Payne, Marissa. “Police seek person who set up fake GoFundMe account for high school athlete with cancer.” The Washington Post. 23 Dec. 2015. Web. 20 May 2016.
Hello Victoria Woo. Thanks for the wonderful and insightful post. My attention has, however, been caught by your claim that “it is not the degree of truth or falsehood in a story which dictates the morality of telling the story; rather, it is the specific context of time and place that are integral in delineating whether it is moral or not to tell it.” I strongly believe that the truth or perceived truthfulness of a story plays a significant role in shaping the morality of telling the story. There has been a long standing debate on whether reading “moral” stories to children makes them better people. A study by Lee et al. (2004) did prove that reading such stories help children become more honest. Even though stories are diverse, many parents who tell their children stories choose those that are positive and true. I strongly believe this is an example of how truthfulness can shape how a story is told and if it will be told at all.
Reference
Lee K, Talwar V, McCarthy A, Ross I, Evans A, & Arruda C (2014). Can Classic Moral Stories Promote Honesty in Children? Psychological science PMID: 24928424
Hi Minkyo!
You are absolutely right. I should rephrase my claim to read “it is not ONLY the degree of truth or falsehood in a story which dictates the morality of telling the story, but ALSO the specific context of time and place…”
I’m glad you specified the idea of perceived truthfulness. Although someone may be telling a story of honest fact or fiction, that the reader/listener perceives the story to be real or not is absolutely crucial.
I appreciate your insightful critique 🙂
Hi Victoria!
I really enjoyed that you coupled storytelling with questions of morality. I think it’s a really important piece to focus on when trying to engage with storytelling at a foundational level. What specifically sparked my interest to comment was when you hyperlinked fan fiction and discussed time/space! This past semester I had the privilege of taking a class with David Gaertner at UBC titled FNIS 220: Representation and Indigenous Cultural Politics where we spent a significant amount of time discussing Indigenous futurisms. Essentially this is when Indigenous peoples bring their traditions or cultures into a modern or future landscape (via stories, video games, movies, chat rooms, fan fictions etc) instead of “abandoning them as relics” and in doing so, pushes back on the idea of primordiality and disconnects from time in a certain way (Cornum). We talked about how these places are ways for Indigenous peoples, among other misrepresented groups, to set themselves on a platform that is evolved in a culturally relevant and self determined ways. I think you’re right though – this can be really dangerous when there are no real boundaries or moderators on the www. But in really significant ways, Indigenous communities have been able to host amazing things like virtual art shows, pow wows, medicine collectives ect on the internet with their community all over the world (not to mention the very well known advocacy group, Idle No More, was largely pushed through story telling over social media). It’s a really cool dynamic that definitely has it’s tensions. As an example check out the Cyberpowwow http://www.cyberpowwow.net/ 🙂
In saying all of that, I wonder what you think about the use of the imaginary to create very real political landscapes?
Thanks!
-Heather
Sorry Cornum Reference below!
Cornum, Lou Catherine. “The Space NDN’s Star Map.” The New Inquiry. N.p., 26 Jan. 2015. Web. 23 May 2016.
Hi Heather 🙂
Thanks for your comment! I’m sorry for such a delayed response. In fact, I think I may even need a bit more time to meditate on your question; it certainly deserves much thought, and I’d like to answer it for you as well as I can. I will have a response by the end of this week.
Victoria