From the event description: "How do you create opportunities through narrative? How do understand your own story, frame your own story, and communicate your own story? Whether you're in business, philanthropy, media, or the social sector, this is the way to work in the 21st century."
(Note: These slides are revised and annotated.)
The Opportunities of Narrative: How Storytelling Leads to Change
1. The Opportunities of
Narrative:
How Storytelling
Leads to Change
annotated and revised slides
Centre for Social Innovation | New York | 9 December 2013
2. Let’s start with a supposition...
CULTURE + STORYTELLING
are
connective tissue that binds us together as humans
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3. and another...
movements + campaigns + projects + social enterprises
need
+ cohesive narrative
+ shared goals
+ common identity
+ networked response
+ local connection / global amplification
+ ethics framework
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4. With those two suppositions as a basis,
let’s talk about...
Power of Narrative
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Narrative Power
5. Power of Narrative
Narrative Power
Engagement
Framing
Surface Area | Entry Points Political | Social | Cultural
Design and Innovation
A Seat At the Table
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6. Power of Narrative
Narrative Power
Setting a Cultural Stage to Cultivate Impact
Humanization of Issues
Shifts in Perception
Calls to Action
(Measurable) Impact
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7. Power of Narrative
Narrative Power
In a world moving toward big data, creative media and
cultural expression have the power to contextualize
human need and experience and catalyze change.
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8. Roots of Strategic Narrative Design
Design
CommunityCenteredness
User-Centered Design
Design Thinking
User Experience
Systemic/Systems
Change
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Transmedia
Storytelling
Social Change
Leadership
Local Voice
Humanizing Social
Issues
Interactivity
Social Movements
Activist Media
Social Innovation
Novel solution to a
social problem that is
more effective, efficient,
sustainable, or just than
existing solutions
9. Transmedia Activism
Framework for strategy to
- Create social impact
- Influence perception
- Build community
through fragmented storytelling by
authors, stakeholders, and
communities who
share assets + create entry points
into issues and solutions
across multiple forms of media
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10. Why is This Important?
+ How to Tell a Story Together
+ How to Tell a Story of Complexity | Ecosystems
+ How to Tell a Story Based in Reality or Imagination
(but always based on stories of individuals)
+ How to Drive and Assess (qualitative) Impact
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11. Why is This Important?
Audiences
Communities
Awareness Engagement Action Change
Actionable Stories
Story Universe
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22. Setting a Cultural Stage: Indie + Nonprofit Interactive Participatory Projects | Social Issue
Dadaab Stories
Hollow
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Sandy Storyline
My Sky is Falling
23. Setting a Cultural Stage: Indie and Nonprofit Projects | Arts and Culture, Community Vibrancy
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24. Setting a Cultural Stage: Data Visualization
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
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25. Setting a Cultural Stage: Interactive Journalism
NYTimes: Snow Fall
Guardian: NSA Files Decoded
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26. Setting a Cultural Stage: Long Form Interactive Journalism
NYTimes: Invisible Child
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27. Setting a Cultural Stage: Nonprofit Interactive | Education and Direct Action
MSF: Starved for Attention
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28. Setting a Cultural Stage: Management Consulting | Social Enterprise
McKinsey & Company: Stories of Social Entrepreneurs
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29. Sources of Funding
+ Corporate Sponsorship
+ Audience Funding | Crowdsourced Funding
+ Crowdsourced Production
+ Philanthropic Funding
++ Film Philanthropies
++ Foundations Supporting Underlying Issues
++ Impact investment funds
+ Income Revenue models
+ Venture Capital | Private Equity
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34. Risks and Challenges
+ Gulf between theory, critique, and
practice
+ Love of the platform and technology |
Techno-determinism
+ “Hijacking” narrative
+ “Savior Traps”
+ “Helicoptering”
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+ Intellectual property concerns
+ Funding and Distribution
+ Impact Measurement
35. Risks and Challenges: Solving for...
Intentionality
+ Creating rigor around and recognizing
intentionality behind "citizen" media and
“DIY” storytelling
+ Parsing out fine lines between story to
engagement to propaganda
+ Bridging engagement/action gap
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36. Risks and Challenges: Solving for...
+ Community-centered
participation
“local voice” in direct partnership with platform creators
+ Move
beyond awareness
connecting targeted audiences to commit to a particular
worldview, advocacy agenda, or action, by using local
storytellers
+ Platforms
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that are culturally appropriate
37. Risks and Challenges: Solving for...
Assessing Your Social Change Model
+ Respect
+ Relevance
+ Resonance
Full model available at http://www.slideshare.net/lksriv/the-3-rs-co
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