Strati di narrazione. La costruzione del significato nella multimodalità digitale

Before the advent of digital culture, quoting reality in the narration was a complex procedure; many of the elements that this type of intertextuality now commonly makes use of were not available in real time, could not be recalled extemporaneously, and if they were, the operation would have required high technical skills. The turning point – with an oxymoron we could call it analogical – that characterises narration in the digital environment is therefore first and foremost linked to its diatechnical peculiarities. Today, through the web and social networks, materials documenting events that have taken place in real life are available to everyone. In the typical dimension of digital communication, words, images and, in general, all textual quotations – but also graphic, photographic, video, audio, etc., and the timing with which they are recalled by readers – take on a semantic weight and are decisive for the construction of the meaning of the text. Real-world events are quoted in the text without mediation, hybridising it so that the message integrates them, with the result that the written text becomes increasingly shorter, elliptical and non-sequential.