Storytelling

Storytelling In The Digital Revolution

Garth Beyer

Being a digital native, using the term new media does not feel accurate. While it may be new to other people, it is perfectly normal and expected to me. However, the world does not consist entirely of digital natives and the media must account for this. They do in the sense of utilizing and incorporating storytelling into all forms of media. Every TV program, radio station, YouTube video, and E-version of a magazine use storytelling to not only gain the attention of you and me, but to maintain that attention. Rushkoff, who spoke in Digital Nation explains how everyone is multitasking now. Rarely does a person focus on one specific thing intensely; they are all over the place! It is our inability to focus which requires the new media to use storytelling.

It seems that when media uses storytelling, it is the only time when a person is face-to-face with technology, which they can actually focus on one specific thing. You can find examples of this in every medium of media. On TV, you can watch the speeches given by Romney, Anne, Michelle, Obama and others. Most people who do watch those speeches are not doing ten other tasks at the same time. Why? Because each of the speakers go up and tell a story, they get your interest, they offer a plot, rising action, a climax and so on.

Why is this so effective? Because storytelling has been around since the beginning of man. Before scripture was invented, people communicated and entertained each other through storytelling. It is in our nature to be attracted to storytelling and the media knows this. However, not all media knows it and this is where we get the distractions; the ads, the pop-ups, the proclamations of people who interrupt our lives. “It may be decades until we know what living in a state of constant distraction will do to us,” says Rushkoff. He is right in the sense that we are living in a state of constant distraction, but since the media utilizes storytelling in all that they communicate effectively, as long as we continue to subject ourselves to that type of media and not the type which only acquires are attention for a few moments, we will be safe.

If the media and storytelling are so vitally important to our lives and society in general, we better be paying attention to the right kind of media. It is almost as if media’s storytelling ability makes us grow or destroy us. Since storytelling holds such persuasion over our daily lives, how do we know what storytelling is right and just? This is my biggest fear. The new media direction of storytelling is an absolutely great thing overall, so long as the storytelling persuades positive action. Going back to the example of our presidential candidates and ladies speaking on TV, their speeches were inspiring, positive, and radiating love for one another and our nation. However, we can look at the type of storytelling that is occurring in another country to find that the particular storytelling the media is producing creates negativity, arguments, and even wars. I suppose you can go so far as to say that our quality of life is dependent on the media’s quality of storytelling.

Addicted, But Far From Anonymous

Garth Beyer

You’re an alcoholic. Wonderful!

You’re addicted to sugar. That’s great!

You can’t control the amount of food you eat. Not a problem!

You’re obsessed with exercise. That’s cool!

We all have our dependencies, our addictions. Every single one of us.

My top three addictions are writing, confrontation (challenging everything and taking on challenges), and attempting to have as much wit as Oscar Wilde. These addictions are like badges of pride that I wear everywhere I go. At first I thought how interesting it was that one or all three addictions would be entwined with any conversation or any story I would tell people. Then I realized that these addictions are my story.

Being obsessed. Having addictions. Being dependent. All are powerful traits – and I mean that in a good sense!

The problem with being wedded to certain influences is when you wear the problem like a badge; when being an alcoholic becomes your story; when you tell everyone how attached you are to eating junk food, day in and day out; when you start using your addiction to drugs as an excuse for the life you’ve lived.

I had a friend who suffered a serious back injury. I was one of the first people who heard the story of how it happened. It was pretty silly. Weeks went by and I heard my friend tell the story over and over to everyone he talked to. In fact, by the 6th or 7th time, it seemed like it was scripted. My friend had the story down pat. It was as if my friend was ready to tell it for the next couple months. My friend was addicted to telling the story and dependent on the responses and type of attention that was received. How can my friend expect to recover when the injury is the story, and the story, my friends life?

The same goes for the alcoholic who is fine with telling everyone that they are. Who is fine with accepting that the reasons they treated people poorly and had a shitty life was because they were an alcoholic. They go to AA, to be grouped with other people who think they are special because they have an addiction. Am I against people getting together to overcome something like alcoholism? No. Am I against the idea that in going there that they have a signficant problem, an addiction that influences their thoughts and actions – and they believe they are special cases? Yes, there’s a big problem.

Every one of our addictions, whether it be alcohol, sugar, writing, singing, debating, planting, breaking things, or running; they all put us under an influence. Each addiction acts as a filter on our mind, sometimes filtering out good motives and considerations, sometimes filtering out the bad.

I was on an Improv team for a few years. Our troupe was called Improv Anonymous. We often opened the show up by getting in a circle, telling our names, and talking about our addiction to Improv. When we weren’t doing our show, we still did Improv: in class, at a friend’s house, in Culver’s. That Improv badge we wore with pride, what we were addicted to, altered every part of our lives.

I’ll say it again: Being addicted to something isn’t bad, whether it’s drugs or playing basketball. Being comfortable with announcing your addiction, wearing it like a badge of honor, and letting it become your story; that’s when we run into problems. There’s a reason why it’s alcoholics anonymous.

“The world is just; it may, it does, patronize quacks; but it never puts them on a level with true men.” – Amelia Barr

 

Stay Positive & Just A Heads-Up: It’s Easier To Change Addictions Than To Stop Them

Garth E. Beyer

One Thousand And One Nights (Of Media)

Garth Beyer

If you’re looking for a great story-teller, there is no one other to look to or compare to than the unbelievably talented Scheherazade (Shuh-Hare-uh-zahd). This goddess of storytelling delayed death by one thousand and one nights simply by telling stories. She did what every reporter, journalist, and center of the media dreams of, and for the same reasons; neither wants to die, be fired, or be humiliated. So what means of attack do they use against death in all its shapes and forms?

Storytelling.

How important is storytelling?

For the eBook I have written called Start Schooling Dreams, I had asked Karthik Puvada, creator and writer of BeThePurpleCow, if he could add just one class to the school curriculum, what class would it be? Immediately, he responded “Storytelling”. I was not satisfied with his single word response, so I pried more to get the following;

“Martin Luther King, Jr.  Steve Jobs. Gandhi. Mark Twain.  Pablo Picasso.

What’s one thing they all have in common?  Yes, they were geniuses in their own fields, but they also were brilliant in something else too.

Storytelling.

They told influential stories all throughout their lives. The stories that defined them. The stories that captivated millions of people around them. Some ended up as iconic books, some as revolutionary civil protests, some as incredible gadgets and some as legendary paintings. But they were all various forms of stories, more importantly ideas.”

You may now be wondering what this has to do with media. Since the introduction of media, the stories of Scheherazade and the incredible world changers that Karthik used as examples have only been amplified. That is what the media is capable of doing with a story – it amplifies it. Storytelling in the media takes on the cumulative effects theory in the sense that the urge for you to consume what the media is presenting is built up to the point of consumption rather than occurring immediately. Just as well, it can shift your views, beliefs, judgments and even your character as easily as it gets you to consume a product.

Like the stories of Scheherazade, the media uses all five elements of story to make a successful impact on your beliefs.

Exposition: the introduction of the topic the media is presenting

Rising action: the media provides specific information to the audience to build tension, suspense, and intrigue

Climax: what the media truly wants you to know and approve

Falling action: what the next steps are for you to take

Resolution: taking those actions and resonating them

Extraordinary storytelling and utilization of the media to amplify it can make you a legend, a millionaire, an artist, and a leader of social change.

My question to you is would you rather watch and listen to Steve Jobs tell a story or a misinformed underpaid reporter? Your answer shows exactly how good storytelling in the media affects what media content you consume.