Memory between old and new media. Rethinking storytelling as a performative practice to process, assess and create awareness of change in the world of secondary orality

Storytelling is old, but in our digital age its means are new. When an event of huge cultural significance occurs (such as the sinking of the Costa Concordia, the “Occupy Wall Street” Protest, or the coming of Boat-People to Europe) stories ricochet from TV to Internet, from cell phone to text message with a speed and proliferation unknown even a decade ago. We need new and effective ways to understand the making of cultural processes in a multi-media environment in order to learn and develop strategies to make sense of cultural shifts in a reduced and very limited span of time. My essay draws on research in both Memory Studies, Literary Studies and Media Ecology to open up the study of storytelling to old and new media psycho-dynamics so to start to develop a methodology of investigation that will facilitate a deeper understanding of the role of multimedia storytelling in the ways in which both individuals and groups cognitively and emotionally navigate profound cultural shift, as well as in the ways in which they create and preserve their memories through time and technological change.