Transcript Public Engagement Telling a Story

STORYTELLING
Jamie Hall
[email protected]
Links and references
Caroline van den Brul (narrative skills workshops) www.creativitybydesign.co.uk
Alice Bell (@alicebell) (science studies researcher and commentator)
http://alicerosebell.wordpress.com
Ed Yong (@edyong209) (popular science blogger)
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience
John Bohannon: Dance vs. Powerpoint (I should have listened!)
http://www.ted.com/talks/john_bohannon_dance_vs_powerpoint_a_modest_proposal.html
This American Life (great storytelling about everyday life)
http://www.thisamericanlife.org
Planet Money (business and economics news and stories, entertaining and informative)
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money
Radiolab (great storytelling about science and society)
http://www.radiolab.org/
Me: [email protected]
and my Parasites comic is here: http://wellcometrust.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/of-parasitology-andcomics/
Advocacy?
Education?
Recruitment?
Entertainment?
Translation?
Public engagement
with science is…
Evangelism?
Social duty?
Brainwashing?
Pitching?
PR?
Storytelling?
Training?
scientists?
scientific ‘method’?
children?
your discipline?
adults?
Public
engagement with
academics?
“understanding of”?
science
your PhD?
government?
your university?
businesspeople?
all science?
“Communication is something you take part in,
not something you deliver.”
Dr. Alice Bell
alicerosebell.wordpress.com
does it affect things that are important to you?
did it happen in your city?
is it about the parasite you work on?
CONNECTIVITY
wrongs must be righted!
something that doesn’t fit
something new, unknown, unexpected
are you in the same world?
STRANGENESS
a tension that must be resolved
COMPREHENSIBILITY
the story must make logical sense, it
must be believable
a lure
What makes you start engaging with a story? – title, cover…
the audience
Where do they lie on this strangeness-connectivity axis?
Will they find the characters’ behaviour, or the outcomes, believable?
the world
does the audience care about the world and the characters in it?
mood, setting, look/feel, detail & description
will the audience recognize strangeness in the world?
something that doesn’t fit
a hook
a wrong that must be righted
the plot
character desiring a goal
hurdles and obstacles
interesting and surprising ways of dealing with them
structure
series of events that arouse emotion and maintain interest
concern for character
mystery (concern for outcome)
suspense (concern for character and outcome)
Ed Yong, blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience