Historians as Digital Storytellers: The Digital Shift in Narrative Practices for Public Historians

Abstract

Innovations in digital technology have profoundly affected all areas of ahistorian’s professional practice, offering unprecedented opportunities to the (co-)creation and impactful dissemination of historical narratives. In practical terms, thedigital shift has set the stage for non-linear, cross-media and participatory narrativepractices. This chapter aims at assessing the distinct tendency towards novel formsof digital storytelling, along with its potentialities and risks for the field of digitalpublic history and cultural heritage institutions such as museums, archives and li-braries. By exploring a selection of inspiring examples from the new media indus-try, it seeks to identify the potential role of public historians in digital storytelling.