The Power Politics in Digital Interactive Narratives: A Shift from Passive to Active Audience?

Abstract

            By tracing the history of narratives which adopted different forms over the years as each period demanded according to the social, political, literary and cultural factors, the triumph of  narratives was not only depended on the plot, diction, characters, its execution but also on the degree of its reception. If a work is not received well by the targeted audience, the significance of that narrative dissipates into void with no one to reminisce. The paper tries to trace the relevance of the audience in the reception of a narrative by analyzing their role over the years and the position of audience in the present digital interactive narratives like video games and interactive movies. This paper also tries to emulate the paradigm shift of the role of audience from being passive receptors to active receptors with a primary focus on the electronic media. This paper also aims to point out the possible power politics that may arise in the digital interactive narratives.