Abstract

This study investigates how the authors of digital stories negotiate their positive social identities using a combination of verbal and visual narrative means. This paper reports on discourse analysis of ten digital stories and studies the ways the authors position themselves within the plots of their digital narratives. The study also investigates the strategies the authors use to negotiate their positive social identities and the ways the authors combine verbal narration with visual images in order to convey the meaning. The results reveal that gender, ethnicity, and cultural background affect the ways the authors negotiate their positive social identities. Moreover, the authors use the strategies of social creativity, social mobility, and social competition creating positive images of themselves. Thus, gender, ethnic, and cultural identities underlie the choice of strategies for positive social identity negotiation.