New Media Ecology and Theoretical Foundations for Nonfiction Digital Narrative Creative Practice

ABSTRACT:Digital storytelling techniques and persuasive communications are becoming increasingly intertwined and realized in cultural discourses such as cultural heritage, environmental activism, and politics. Rhetorical theory has grounded and influenced communication practice since the age of oration, and as society is increasingly undergoing new mediatization, digital rhetorical theory can be reexamined and applied to nonfiction digital narratives for improved practice. Narratology provides key theoretical foundations that are braided into digital rhetoric for application to digital nonfiction narratives. This article highlights how new media has changed the impacts of the modes of persuasion (ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos) on today's multimedia-consuming audiences and how the classical rhetorical canons (invention, arrangement, style, delivery, and memory) can be reframed and updated by incorporating narrative theory to aid creators of new nonfiction digital narratives across different genres.