Tell a Different Story
To make change, you may need to change the narrative around the issues. Shift the focus. Reframe the story to highlight what you see as the real concerns. Help your audience see things from a different perspective, and bring them around to your point of view.
Here are just a few of the FTV projects that tell a different story:
Here’s how FTV participants in Southern California told a different story about the open sharing of scientific research by framing it as a rivalry between UCLA and USC:
Apply it:
- Identify a protagonist and build a narrative around them. Give people a hero to root for or a villain they’ll love to hate.
- Change up the vocabulary. Instead of sticking with the common buzzwords, use terms that reflect your position.
- Start somewhere different. Try introducing your case with an historical anecdote, an imagined future moment, or a compelling example from right now.
- Break the tropes that aren’t working by telling the story from someone else’s perspective.
- Invite others to tell their own stories – to present the issues according to their specific points of view.