Digital storytelling is a short form of digital media production that enables individuals to create and distribute their narratives through online platforms. The method is frequently used in schools, museums, libraries, social work and health settings, and communities. They are thought to have educational, democratizing and therapeutic effects.

Digital storytelling is the practice of using digital media tools to tell stories, such as images, audio, videos, animation, and text to effectively tell a story. It focuses on emotional engagement, artistic endeavors, personal expression, and creativity. This combines narrative elements such as (characters, setting, plot, emotion). It represent creative freedom and emotional expression: Not bound to data and can include fiction, personal stories, cultural traditions, or advocacy messages.

Digital storytelling is a community-based activity and should be distinguished from electronic literature, which is a literary movement where genres include hypertext fiction, digital poetry, interactive fiction, generative literature, and from other forms of digital narrative, for instance in video games or fan fiction.

"Digital stories" are "short vignettes that combine storytelling with still pictures, video clips, music, and text using a variety of video software".

Digital stories often present in compelling and emotionally engaging formats, and can be interactive. The media used may include the digital equivalent of film techniques, stills, audio only, or any of the other forms of non-physical media (material that exists only as electronic files as opposed to actual paintings or photographs on paper, sounds stored on tape or disc, movies stored on film) which individuals can use to tell a story or present an idea.

The term "digital storytelling" is sometimes also used more broadly to cover a range of digital narratives (web-based stories, interactive stories, hypertexts, and narrative computer games); It is sometimes used to refer to film-making in general, and as of late, it has been used to describe advertising and promotion efforts by commercial and non-profit enterprises.

One can define digital storytelling as the process by which diverse peoples share their life stories and creative imaginings with others. This newer form of storytelling emerged with the advent of accessible media production techniques, hardware and software, including but not limited to digital cameras, digital voice recorders, iMovie, Microsoft Photos, Final Cut Express and WeVideo. These new technologies allow individuals to share their stories over the Internet on YouTube, Vimeo, compact discs, podcasts, and other electronic distribution systems.

One can think of digital storytelling as the modern extension of the ancient art of storytelling, now interwoven with digitized still and moving images and sound. Thanks to new media and digital technologies, individuals can approach storytelling from unique perspectives. Many people use elaborate non-traditional story forms, such as non-linear and interactive narratives.