Abstract:

Although South Africa is regarded as an emerging economy, its attributes are those of both an advanced and a developing economy. In the bigger cities as well as in the metropolitan areas, highly advanced technology and infrastructure can be found, however access to even the most basic technologies are lacking in townships, smaller towns and rural areas.

While statistics indicate that in 2019 more South Africans have access to smartphones, high-end smartphones—required for development of digital stories—still remain largely inaccessible to low-income communities. A recent survey of the South African digital landscape indicated that South Africans pay exceptionally high fees for data usage compared to their counterparts in other developing countries. Thus, post-Apartheid South Africa still remains economically and educationally stratified. These factors along with the lack of e-skills contributes to an ever-growing digital divide. Mobile technology in the low-income sector offers the potential for bridging this divide and the upliftment to—in a way—overcome poverty.

The main objective of this investigation was to establish what hardware and software technologies would be required to effectively run community-based digital storytelling workshops and to identify an appropriate methodology for digital storytelling in under-resourced environments.

A “participative observation” approach was used to conduct the study. It is where the researcher is physically immersed during the research process and the researcher’s theoretical or epistemological beliefs also forms part of the observation. Attuned to the fact that digital literacy may be a problem it was decided that the participants should use the devices/hardware they are acquainted with. This posed some challenges since a number of the “own devices” were entry level smartphones with limited functionality and storage space. The storage space would be needed to download the required software. While low digital skills were anticipated amongst workshop participants, it was the extent to which the lack of general literacy hampered progress during the story-circle process, that were highlighted.

The research shows that access to hardware, software and infrastructure are important factors when working with communities. Low literacy levels are a major factor negatively impacting independent development of digital stories. Using a methodology which can be adapted to deal with the requirements of each situation is important in addressing the disparity in literacy levels of workshop participants.

It is hoped that the exploitation of the ubiquitous mobile technology (also in resource-scarce environments) could provide access to the development of digital skills, affording all citizens, the opportunity to actively participate in the digital economy. The sharing of stories about community-based social innovations has been identified as an approach for developing entrepreneurial skills, which holds the potential for alleviating poverty.

Keywords:

Digital storytelling, digital landscape, digital divide, social innovation or social entrepreneurship, digital skills, literacy, hardware and software.