  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.
