Digital Organizational Storytelling and Users: Case Study on the Perceived Role of Users in the Storytelling of the Digital Organization Kurzgesagt

Abstract: Aim – The thesis aims to advance the knowledge on the potential that user perceptions have in adopting a role in the digital organizational storytelling of a digital organization, and the impact of network protocols (the communicative codes, conventions, and language used in the digital world) in this process. Approach – The approach combines antenarrative and narrative analysis to understand the meaning, depth, and implications of user perceptions in the digital organizational storytelling practices. Additionally, network society theory is framed to account for what network protocols are, and why it is important to analyze them to account for how digital organizational storytelling grants plausibility to a specific digital organization. Design and methodology – A case study is proposed, the digital organization Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell is a YouTube channel with a remarkable presence in the platform, the organization uses storytelling to present scientific topics in short videos. Interviews to users were performed to collect data. Qualitative content analysis was used as a method to unpack the themes of meaning of the data and interpret them under the theoretical lens that combines antenarrative, narrative, and network protocols. Findings – Perspectives from users revealed that their antenarratives and narratives embedded in the digital organizational storytelling practices are circular in the communication between Kurzgesagt and the users, network protocols were found to be non-static and bound-dependent to each digital organization, according to their approaches to storytelling and goals within digital platforms. Value – This study contributes to advancing the knowledge on how digital organizational storytelling practices function, the originality of the research is based on the approach to perceptions of users, the ‘other side of the coin’ from what previous studies have investigated by analyzing stories from within the digital organization. It contributes to the field of Digital Media and Society, as well as Organizational and Management Research.