Dreaming Differently: A Creative Approach for Communicating Digital Risks
Abstract:
Using Ulrich Beck’s risk society as a theoretical foundation, this thesis explores the meaning of digital risks as immaterial and highly uncertain risks: where the greater the risk becomes, the more invisible it may be. Given this nature, these risks are often filled with many unknowns and high variability, they may exist far into the future, and may be difficult to perceive or understand with current institutions and mindsets. Furthermore, in a ‘digital’ risk society, it is not merely the failure of such institutions that generates these digital risks, but also the success.In order to identify and analyse such invisible and ambiguous risks, this thesis asserts that they must be communicated early on. It argues that fictional storytelling- rooted in academic theories and concepts- can be used as a messenger. This method acknowledges and builds from their inherent uncertainties and makes digital risks experienceable, visible and understandable while allowing for various interpretations.
This approach aims to facilitate open discussions about the different ways to progress into the future, and provides the opportunity for active transformations and decisions. To demonstrate this practically, I provide an experimental case study analysis of a short fictional story that I authored, which is intended to generate discussions around the digital risks caused by using technology to respond to climate change. The message I constructed involves technology gaining power over human beings when it is used as a mediator for decision-making and as a mechanism for understanding the world. The case study centres on the process of using academic concepts and theories to create a message conveyed through fiction. Finally, I offer insight into the next steps necessary for digital risk communication: by engaging with a target audience and discovering how such a message is received.
Keywords: digital, risk, communication, storytelling, fiction, climate change, technology