Citizens everywhere have the right to be well-informed. Yet, with the high complexity of many contemporary issues, such as global warming and migration, our means of information need to mutually adapt. Narrative has always been at the core of information exchange - regardless of whether our ancestors sat around a fire and exchanged stories, or whether we read an article in a newspaper, or watched a TV news broadcast. Yet, the narrative formats of the newspaper article, the news broadcast, the documentary, and the textbook are severely limited when it comes to representing highly complex topics which may include several competing - and sometimes equally valid - perspectives. Such complexity contributes to a high level of uncertainty due to a multitude of factors affecting an outcome. Fortunately, with Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN), there is a novel media format which can address these challenges. IDNs can present several different perspectives in the same work, and give audiences the ability to explore them at will through decision-making. After experiencing the consequences of their decisions, the audience can replay to revisit and change these decisions in order to consider their alternatives. IDN works enable deep personalization and the inclusion of live data. These capabilities make IDN a 21st century democratic medium, empowering citizens through the understanding of complex issues. In this white paper, we discuss the challenge of representing complexity, describe the advantages offered by IDNs, and point out opportunities and strategies for deployment.

翻译：每位公民都享有获得充分信息的权利。然而，面对全球变暖、移民等当代议题的高度复杂性，信息传播方式亟需相互适配。叙事始终是信息交流的核心——无论我们的祖先围坐在篝火旁分享故事，还是我们阅读报纸文章或观看电视新闻广播，莫不如此。但当涉及包含多种相互竞争且有时同样合理的观点的复杂议题时，报纸文章、新闻广播、纪录片和教科书等叙事格式在呈现高度复杂主题方面存在严重局限性。这种复杂性导致多种影响因素共同作用下的高度不确定性。幸运的是，交互式数字叙事这一新兴媒体格式能够应对这些挑战。交互式数字叙事可在同一作品中呈现多种不同视角，赋予受众通过决策自主探索的能力。在体验决策后果后，受众可重播回顾并更改决策以考究替代方案。交互式数字叙事作品实现了深度个性化与实时数据融合的能力。这些特性使交互式数字叙事成为21世纪的民主媒介，通过帮助公民理解复杂议题来增强其能力。本白皮书将探讨复杂性表征面临的挑战，阐述交互式数字叙事提供的优势，并指出部署机遇与策略。