Should this story be told? And to whom?
Before you start the storytelling process, it is important to consider: “Should this story be told?”
Start with knowing that you are not obligated to share your story.
Once you share a story, you invite others in, creating opportunities for others to share your stories in ways you can’t control. This makes it important to decide whether or not you or your organization should share a given story.
Consent is key. Who needs to consent to having this story be told? For example: a resident of a community, a CBO staff member, or a group of people? Do they consent to their story being shared?
Remember: there is no consent without an opportunity for refusal. If your organization is telling a story on behalf of an individual or group of individuals within your community, engage early and often with storytellers, and ensure they’re fully informed about the risks, benefits, and what sharing their story will entail.
What are the threats, and to whom?
- What are the perennial threats associated with telling this story?
A perennial threat is a challenge that has faced your group or community throughout its history. For instance, if your group focuses on advocating for clean water in a region with polluted water, the parties polluting your water are a perennial threat. Will telling your story invoke a response from them? - What are the emergent threats associated with telling your story?
An emergent threat is a threat that is new or would evolve as a result of telling your story. An emergent threat for an EJ group might be a threat to the safety of the storyteller if the story reveals any sensitive information about them or their community. - Who is threatened by telling this story? Are they aware of the risks?
What are the benefits, and to whom?
- What are the holistic benefits associated with telling this story?
A holistic benefit is a benefit that, in an over-arching way, supports the whole mission of a group or their whole community, as opposed to an effort against one specific problem. For instance, storytelling about your community on Earth Day might not serve a specific purpose but might be aimed more generally at raising awareness around your group’s goals. This is a holistic benefit, in line with your group’s mission but not aimed at any goal in particular. - What are the pragmatic benefits associated with telling this story?
A pragmatic benefit is an outcome of storytelling that is practical and somewhat measurable, aimed at a particular goal or issue. For instance, storytelling about an acute source of pollution in your community is aimed at the pragmatic benefit of reducing that pollution by making stakeholders—for example, policymakers—aware of it and the risks associated with it. - Who benefits from this story being told? Is it your community, or is it a broader audience?
Conduct a risk assessment
With this information, you can conduct a risk assessment. Do the benefits outweigh potential threats?
For example, consider building a risk matrix to determine the potential threats, how risky they are, and how you might mitigate risks.
For examples of how this plays out in storytelling contexts, see the Refugee Advocacy Lab’s Safety in Storytelling Risk Assessment Worksheet and the Australian Council for International Development’s Storytelling Risks Factsheet.
This information will inform your choice of how you tell your story and to whom. Maybe a story is too risky to tell a broader social media audience, but there are significant benefits to outweigh potential threats if you tell your story at a town hall or in a private Facebook group closed to your community.
Making sure any involved storytellers understand the risks and benefits of storytelling is critical for obtaining informed consent. This creates a safe environment for all parties involved.
Who is your audience?
It is also important to consider who you want to tell your story to:
What to know about telling your story online
Online storytelling is a method with potentially massive reach. If your goal is to inform as many people as you can with your story, then the digital world is a great place to tell it.
The internet is where people go to find information these days. If there is no information about your community out there, it is called a data void. This refers to a lack of information about a particular subject available on the internet. In the case of a data void, the next best thing—which might be information about a totally different subject or community—will be pulled in to write that AI summary or will show up as the top search result.
Considering this phenomenon, it’s important to understand the dynamics of data voids and whether or not you want to fill them. In some cases, it can be important to share stories about your community digitally to ensure the correct information about your community is available when searched online. If you publish a short blog on your website about the history of your community and its experience of climate change, the search engine’s basic algorithm and AI will draw on that instead of a narrative that doesn’t come from within your community.
However, there might be some information you don’t want being pulled by AI, or that should not be used to fill a data void. This might present a risk to telling a particular story via social media or other digital mediums.
How to tell your story
If you decide to tell your story, there are many different ways you can do it.
In the technical assistance section of this guide, you’ll find tips and tools for storytelling in many mediums: creative writing, documentary, grant writing, journalism, oral history, performance art, photography, podcasts and other audio, political advocacy, public comments, testimony, public speaking, short video, social media, and visual art.
Continue to the Building Technical Storytelling Skills section to learn more!
