Shift - Media Development Collective

Storytelling for Development

Stories have the potential to be extremely effective. They have the power to alter how we perceive our surroundings, interact with one another, and persuade us. The viewer is able to shift perspectives and challenge their own way of thinking by identifying with the characters. Because of this ability to empathize with story characters, story is one of the most powerful ways to change belief and behavior.

When it comes to changing people’s minds about contentious political or social issues, stories have been shown to be the most effective. MDC has a five-module persuasive storytelling training that has been implemented in dozens of development programs in cultural norms shifting and advocacy on issues such as the SDGs, climate change, women’s rights, and political pluralism.

Benefits:

Be able to target specific beliefs and behaviours.
Understand empathy mapping and how it can be used to shift belief and behavior.
Discover the fundamentals of persuasion.
Know how to use persuasion to craft powerful stories.
Develop your own story using a tested storytelling process.
Implement your story in various mediums and formats.
Upgrade your knowledge and skills through highly practical coursework.
Consolidate or enhance your existing storytelling knowledge.
Prototype your persuasive story.

This course is perfect for:

Civil Society Groups who want to target specific beliefs or change specific perceptions on social, political or rights based issues. Or who wish to create dialogue within constituencies or give voice to groups through storytelling.
Foundations that have impact stories they wish to tell.
Government Agencies who wish to reach target communities meaningfully.
Media Professionals and Organisations wanting to develop their storytelling abilities towards more impact.

Outline:

Gain a solid grounding in persuasive storytelling by getting hands-on with a range of tools, techniques and best practices.

Module 1: Target Audience Hyper-targeting
Module 2: Persuasive communication: developing clear aims for story
Module 3: Storytelling: the building blocks of story
Module 4: Creating new content formats: developing story ideas into versions suitable for all platforms from tweets to television
Module 5: Prototyping: Applying techniques to own story

MODULE 1: Target Audience Hyper-targeting

Identifying key behaviours and attitudes.
Broad and specific target audiences.
The hypertargeting map.
Formulating hypertargeted audience statements.
Using open source online tools for insights.
Using mapping for content ideas.

MODULE 2: Persuasive Communication

What can be learnt and how is it relevant to communication.
Learning domains and media.
Persuasion and learning.
Credible sources, logical approaches and emotional appeals.
Crafting aim statements.
Objectivity and persuasion.

MODULE 3: The building blocks of story

The inverted pyramid approach vs. storytelling structure.
Building blocks of story.
Story symbols and the moral premise.
Anatomy of fact-based story; case studies.
Crafting a story.

MODULE 4: Content Formats

The difference between format, medium and channel.
10 basic formats in media and how to use them.
Creating new formats for your story.
Developing content that balances information and emotion.
Innovating through formats.

MODULE 5: Prototyping

Applying the key concepts of the modules to your own specific story.
Receiving peer feedback on the story.
Pitching stories / presenting a prototyped story.