The Narrative Ecosystem
The narrative ecosystem of the storytelling boom is the people + organizations involved in the study, production and use of strategic narrative texts.
The storytelling boom began when marketers and communications professionals noticed that online content in the form of a story was much more popular than other content, and more likely to go “viral”. The following drive to tell everything “as a story” created a flood of stories — or narrative texts — online, which scholars of narrative turned their attention to as an object of study.
The storytelling boom relates specifically to strategic narrative texts, or strategic storytelling, which produces stories in service to an external objective, such as persuasion, media exposure, awareness and capturing audience attention.
Studying Texts
Narrative scholars
Narratologists
“How are these stories different from other stories?”
“How are these stories being used?”
“What is the impact of their use?”
Strategic Narrative Texts
Producing Texts
Communications professionals
Storytelling consultants
“How do we produce better stories?”
“How do we tell stories that make an impact?”
“How do we produce texts ethically?”
People
Narrative Texts
Institutions
Academics
Practitioners or Communicators
Educators + Trainers
Organizational storytelling or corporate storytelling
Impact storytelling
Universities
Nonprofit funders and think tanks
Nonprofits and social change organizations
Communications agencies
Narrative scholar: Someone who studies narrative texts.
Narratologist: Someone who studies the use and impact of narrative texts.
Narrative researcher: Someone who studies narrative texts that they collect, such as interviewing asylum seekers and analyzing the collected texts.
Storytelling: Someone with expertise in the art of telling stories (for entertainment or professional public speaking).
Strategic Storytelling: Communications professionals who use storytelling as part of their communications strategy.
Teaching communications professionals how to incorporate narrative into their communications strategy.
Teaching communications professionals or spokespeople how to tell stories that are persuasive.
Stories narrated by an organization or corporation.
These stories are part of the organization’s communications, and are considered “strategic storytelling”.
Stories about human impact, narrated by an organization, as part of the organization’s strategic storytelling.
Impact storytelling presents specific ethical concerns.
Provide narrative education
Sponsor research projects about narrative
Fund research to inform better communication practices by nonprofits
Employing narrative techniques to improve their communications
Employing narrative change as a social change strategy
Selling communications services to nonprofits and social change organizations, specializing in storytelling and narrative change.