Nonprofit Collections of Digital Personal Experience Narratives: An Exploratory Study

Lisa Dush DePaul University

Abstract

Nonprofit organizations have long used the personal experience narratives of clients, staff, and stakeholders in their communications. This study explores digital-age practices with this text form, analyzing 82 collections of digital personal experience narratives (DPENs) housed at or linked to Web sites of nonprofit organizations. Results are reported on the variety and frequency of the modes, featured constituencies, narrative perspectives, and digital interface features in the sample. Overall, the nonprofit DPEN collections sampled showed limited use of new digital production and distribution possibilities. Practice, however, differed notably between two segments of nonprofits: networks and service organizations. To explore these results, the article discusses key examples of DPEN collections from each segment.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
2017-04-01
DOI
10.1177/1050651916682287
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
Topics
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Citation context

Cited by in this index (4)

  1. Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Journal of Business and Technical Communication

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