Orality, Media, and Information Technology

Abstract

A part of understanding how a people speak and perform is to appreciate their culture and outlook to life in general. This understanding should not be limited to face-to-face interactions alone. The asynchronous nature of virtual communication, especially how viewers receive/decode creative content, makes for interesting study and an alternative to an appreciation of a people not in geographical proximity. Creative performances have been studied in tandem with the nature of the language and its diversified possibilities of meaning; what has been left out (and should not be ignored) is an understanding of how the medium through these creative expressions shapes performances, reception, and interpretation. This third leg of this particular academic enterprise is within the purview of media studies. It is in this field that the tripartite of content, form, and its reception intersect seamlessly. To the knowledge of this researcher, how virtual audiences receive folktales has not yet been given its due intellectual/critical attention. Using empirical data, this paper follows randomly selected number of social media platforms to uncover how viewers relate to the video clips of African folktales and performances. The findings show that electronic footprints stand in place of instant feedbacks performers feed off during face-to-face performances.