Lev Manovich’s database logic demonstrates the historical and contemporary uses of the term ‘database’, as a structured collection of data. The organisation of data within a database is complex and varies depending on the medium. Whether in reference to object related collections, networks, hierarchies or information based content, the organisation of such material is based on algorithms tailored to the particular medium. Manovich’s article opened my eyes to the possibilities of the term ‘database’. Unrestricted by the overpowering pre-conceived understanding of the term as a technological storage of data, one will realise the evidence of the term as symbolic of story construction. In contrast to the term ‘narrative’, ‘database’ serves as a list of un-ordered items, whereas a narrative forms cause-effect relationships between unrelated items. This pins the term ‘database’ against ‘narrative’ in the battle for the creation of meaning in new media. Given the affordances of web 2.0 and hypertext enabling a continuous flow of unordered information, it is interesting that, as Manovich suggests “What is more surprising is why the other end of the spectrum – narratives – still exist within new media”. Why is narrative such a broadly excepted word, when a database if more relevant to the contemporary world.