Blog 2- Inequality is Real

PART 1: How do the choices made by the author engage audience members?  If music is used, what effect does it have on you? If graphics or animation is included, how do they enhance the story?  If the story is interactive, what are you able to explore? 

This week looking at digital stories, I thought Inequality Is Real by the Economic Policy Institute, was exceptionally interactive and compelling.

    As soon as the docking page loads, users are prompted to estimate their perceived and the actual distribution of wealth among the top 10% and the rest of the population in the United States. After revealing the reality of wealth distribution, the user is left with a feeling of shock and almost disbelief.

Figure 1. Economic Policy Institute Inequality is Real 2013. screenshot retrieved from: http://inequality.is/real

    The situation becomes more personable when users are able to enter personal demographic information and instantly get feedback of their socioeconomic status in the macro-economic picture of increasingly uneven distribution of wealth based off statistics over the last few decades. By using simple 2D animations and clear easy to understand graphs and statistics, the “Inequality is Real” Digital story makes a urgent call-for-action and shift to “how we can fix” this failing system by providing extra resources, links, and sharing with others.

    The story does not utilize music, but contains sound effects coupled with smooth animations and transitions between prompts and displaying visual data.

PART 2: What educational value do you see in the story?  What content and ISTE standards are addressed by the creation of the story? 

The educational value apparent in this story is achieved by making a clear drive for addressing and the exponentially increasing socioeconomic disparity in the U.S.A.through statistics and data recorded over the last few decades.

The ISTE standards addressed by the creation of the story include:

Digital Citizen 1.2.b - Students demonstrate empathetic, inclusive interactions online and use technology to responsibly contribute to their communities.The story's focus on economic justice requires students to engage responsibly with sensitive societal issues .

Knowledge Constructor 1.3.d - Students build knowledge by exploring real-world issues and gain experience in applying their learning in authentic settings.

Global Collaborator 1.7.d - Students explore local and global issues, and use collaborative technologies to work with others to investigate solutions. This digital story offers tools and resources for connecting with others for a common cause. 

This focus on environmental or societal issues would be ideal for a middle,high school or even higher learning levels. In the prompts for entering personal demographics, the ages range from 16-64, but I believe the target audience could be even wider as this issue affects any citizen of the U.S.

While this particular topic may be more suited in a Social studies or History class, making connections with my content area in ELA or Fine Arts, I think this is a successful mixed media project that brings attention to a social issue. There are well executed techniques that bring awareness to issues, produces pain, and a call for action that could be utilized over a wide variety of topics.The visual and audio elements are relatively simple, yet efficient in conveying the main message that the wealth distribution in the U.S.A. is unfair.

PART 3: Based on Ohler's and Lambert's guidance for story creation, what connections do you see to the story you have focused on? 

    In Lambert’s (2010) Digital Story Cookbook all stories can be boiled down to one of two types: “A stranger came to town... or “We went on a vacation.” in other words change came to you or you went towards change.

    The Inequality is Real digital story is about change coming to us. Lambert(2010) also describes the different kinds of stories told, where this falls into a ‘Discovery Story’ category, as it uncovers facts to reveal a truth.

    This story also adheres to the steps of story creation listed in the Cookbook, as it continues to build on this problem through emotional pain. Contrasting user’s perception and reality about wealth distribution clearly through graphics of money being moved from the majority of people into the possession of the top 10%, represented by a monopoly-esque figure of man.

Figure 2. Economic Policy Institute Inequality is Real 2013. screenshot retrieved from: http://inequality.is/real

Ohler’s (2023) story building is based around a core of three steps:

1. Problem           →           2. Transformation            →            3. Solution

    As the money visibly flows out of the people’s hands into the pockets of the wealthy, furthered by the increased discrepancy between rich and poor displayed in charts and data, transform’s the viewers perspective on the magnitude of the situation.

    By offering resources and a ‘solution’ of how we can fix this situation, fits into the story core described by Ohler. 

Inequality is Real Story Map	Stimulus	Reaction
1. Problem	If it were up to you, how would you split up income between the top 10% and the other 90%?	What happens next? How is this so uneven? Why is is like this?
2. Transformation	View the actual data of wealth distribution in the U.S.A. and growing disparity between top 10 and other 90.	Answering the questions of users and explains the reality of economic distribution, viewers realize social responsibility.
3. Solution	Offering resources and links to ‘fix’ this problem	The problem has been addressed and the viewers have been empowered to start taking steps towards equality.

 

Resources:

Crompton, H., Burke, D. The Nexus of ISTE Standards and Academic Progress: A Mapping Analysis of Empirical Studies. TechTrends (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-024-00973-y

 

Lambert, J. (2010). Digital Storytelling Cookbook. Center for Digital Story Telling. Open Education Resource.

 

Ohler, J. (2023). How to make a story - Process notes. Retrieved from: http://storyconcepts.blogspot.com/Links to an external site.