Did you know: Research has shown that communication that creates new narratives for people to believe in is more effective in creating positive social change than communication that attacks and re-emphasises existing narratives?
What do we mean by creating compelling new narratives?
⭐The narratives we hold about how things work and our role in our social worlds shape how we respond to things. Groups of people over time can create organising narratives that many people endorse; these can become dominant. When groups of people are particularly attached to a story about how something works they may find it hard to change their attitudes or behaviours.
⭐Examples would be negative perceptions of Africa and how it has been historically constructed as backward in the western imagination, or misogynistic or demeaning narratives around women sustained by patriarchal social structures.
⭐Shifting narratives by telling new ones helps disrupt dominant narratives and ways of thinking. As communication practitioners, we can use new narratives to build a more just or equal society.
⭐When we create and make public new narratives to counter the dominant, we open doors to new metaphors, unexpected and inspiring ideas. We can challenge dominant narratives without reinforcing them.
⭐Using empathic and practical narratives to shift attention towards alternate possibilities has a powerful effect on people.
What are some practical ways civil society can do this?
Here are 5 suggestions for communication change-makers in South Africa and our world:
1️⃣ We can tell enriching and inspiring stories of real life people and scenarios that shift away from dominant narratives, using empathy to open peoples’ minds to new ways of being.
2️⃣ We can discuss and present imagined futures using metaphors that help people envision new ways of thinking, helping people identify new journeys for themselves towards a new future.
3️⃣ We can unearth hidden stories and hidden facts that are often drowned by dominant voices or narratives and bring them to life visually so they catch people’s attention.
4️⃣ We can tell good stories of our solutions and successes, the progress we have made and the effect of all our good work – big picture stories of solutions help people see change in action.
5️⃣ We can equip society with tools to shift their own thinking, enabling people to analyse, assess and evaluate dominant narratives and choose how to engage with them, and in this, create more of a culture of critical agency.
Are you a communication change-maker and want to join our community?
