ABSTRACT
This chapter applies narrative theory to the study of digital stories of undocumented youth on YouTube. It points to the similarities between the digital stories of undocumented youth and two types of narratives: the traditionally Latin American testimonio and the digital ‘testimonios’/digital storytelling techniques that Benmayor describes. In particular, the testimonio is a personalized ‘version’ of the truth, produced in interview-like situations, and does not represent – yet embodies – a voice for all the ‘oppressed’ of a particular minority. Digital storytelling techniques are creative multimedia tools to tell stories. Predominant in digital stories of undocumented youth is hence ‘multimodality’, the combination of two or more semiotic systems, which shifts the focus of mere spoken or written testimonios to more visual expressions of political statements in the videos, for instance. Despite the fact that digital stories, like testimonios, play with concepts of authorship, it does not imply that digital testimonios are simply mediated by newer technologies. Quite in contrast, the multimodal design of the stories presented in this chapter suggests a pattern for ‘mediatization’ – the shaping of the testimonios of undocumented youth by the logic of YouTube videos.
