The Storytelling Boom
What is the storytelling boom?
Instrumentalized stories in the public sphere.
Everyone is talking about narrative: the media narrative, false narratives, alternate narratives, my narrative.
When digital media made publishing stories cheap and easy, more and more information was published as a story. People like stories, so that content had more engagement, which led to more content being published as as story…. creating the storytelling boom.
Stories were once firmly situated in entertainment and advertising, but storytelling has now been normalized as a form of communication within professional communications — and today’s leaders are expected to be storytellers, too.
The academic terminology for this use of story is “instrumentalized storytelling”: using stories as a strategic instrument.
Strategic storytelling
Telling stories — about real people — narrated by organizations.
Strategic storytelling is the practice of telling stories about real people to communicate information for an organization.
the story is about the life of a real person — either a member of the organization or a beneficiary of its activities
the story is narrated by the organization
the story is told by the subject (first-person) or by a spokesperson of the organization (third-person)
the story is in service to the organization (e.g. fundraising, marketing or publicity)
Strategic storytelling is in service to a strategic plan, which impacts the narration of the stories.
A story-critical approach to the storytelling boom.
As storytelling in the public sphere has grown, criticism has emerged.
Learn more: