From traditional to digital storytelling: The example of Youtube

The communication process from the earliest days of mankind has continued until today and brought to mind the idea that there can be a storytelling wherever people are. From the earliest times to the present, it can be seen that the communication and storytelling process took place in verbal, written, printed, electronic and digital forms. The storytelling process that started traditionally continues with digital tools today. Despite the change in communication tools and methods, it is seen that there is story and storytelling as an element that does not change between people. This study focuses on the concept of storytelling and aims to make the adventure of the narrator, audience and content more evident in the process that changes from traditional storytelling to digital storytelling. The main purpose of the study is to provide an understanding of what are traditional storytelling and digital storytelling and show clearly what are the differences between them. In this context, it is aimed to enable users to reach the level of analyzing digital stories on YouTube. The study was conducted by adopting the principles of qualitative research method. The data were obtained from the analysis of the videos of Barış Özcan which selected as a sample YouTube channel, and structured online interviews with undergraduate students of three different universities. As a result, it has been observed that there is no awareness of the concept of storytelling in the eyes of today's undergraduate students, traditional storytelling has not ended today, but has largely evolved into digital storytelling.