Interactive Narrative and Aesthetic Education in Children’s Short Dramas on Short-Video Platforms: A Study of Implementation Pathways

Abstract

Children’s short dramas on short-video platforms have emerged as a content format with notable potential for aesthetic education. This conceptual study examines the interactive narrative mechanisms of such dramas and considers how these mechanisms may contribute to aesthetic education. Drawing on interactive digital narrative theory and Dewey’s account of aesthetic experience, the study constructs a three-layer analytical framework that links interactive narrative, aesthetic experience, and aesthetic education. The analysis conducted at the levels of narrative structure, audio-visual semiotics, and interactive design suggests that branching narratives, multimodal signal intensification, and bullet-comment interaction may foster aesthetic experience. The aesthetic education dimensions of perception and judgement cultivation, creativity stimulation, and cultural identity construction are identified and matched to the three mechanism families. The proposed implementation pathway includes content production, age-tiered narrative design based on the stages of cognitive development, and platform-level algorithmic optimisation involving multiple stakeholders. The analysis suggests that interactive affordances may be preconditions rather than guarantees of aesthetic development, and the structural tension between the traffic logic of the platform and the reflective temporality of aesthetic education may be the principal obstacle to realising this potential at scale.