Visual voices and aural (auto)ethnographies: the personal, political, and polysemic value of storytelling and/in communication

ABSTRACT This themed issue speaks to the political significance and power of stories and epistemological privileges, and the impact and influence of identity, technology, and culture in our storied communication. The digital focus of the last 20 years continually impacts how we tell and disseminate stories, how we make and record observations (research), and how we teach and reach audiences (publication). Featured essays foreground the ways we can use our voices, stories, histories, and scholarship to make sense of contexts, moments, and experiences that are sometimes unspeakable, but other times ineffable, as well as ways narrative and ethnography can be joined with other methods to amplify the personal and generalizable. Contributors approach the study of communication through emergent media including virtual reality, game studies, digital storytelling, podcasts, photovoice, film, and the study of sound.