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How Stories Connect And Persuade Us: Unleashing The Brain Power Of Narrative

Elena Renken

When you listen to a story, your brain waves actually start to synchronize with those of the storyteller. And reading a narrative activates brain regions involved in deciphering or imagining a person's motives and perspective, research has found. aywan88/Getty Images hide caption

When you listen to a story, your brain waves actually start to synchronize with those of the storyteller. And reading a narrative activates brain regions involved in deciphering or imagining a person's motives and perspective, research has found.

When you listen to a story, whatever your age, you're transported mentally to another time and place — and who couldn't use that right now?

"We all know this delicious feeling of being swept into a story world," says Liz Neeley , who directs The Story Collider, a nonprofit production company that, in nonpandemic times, stages live events filled with personal stories about science. "You forget about your surroundings," she says, "and you're entirely immersed."

Depending on the story you're reading, watching or listening to, your palms may start to sweat, scientists find. You'll blink faster, and your heart might flutter or skip. Your facial expressions shift, and the muscles above your eyebrows will react to the words — another sign that you're engaged.

A growing body of brain science offers even more insight into what's behind these experiences.

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Photos: life and work amid the outbreak.

Storytelling Helps Hospital Staff Discover The Person Within The Patient

On functional MRI scans , many different areas of the brain light up when someone is listening to a narrative, Neeley says — not only the networks involved in language processing, but other neural circuits, too. One study of listeners found that the brain networks that process emotions arising from sounds — along with areas involved in movement — were activated, especially during the emotional parts of the story.

As you hear a story unfold, your brain waves actually start to synchronize with those of the storyteller, says Uri Hasson , professor of psychology and neuroscience at Princeton University. When he and his research team recorded the brain activity in two people as one person told a story and the other listened, they found that the greater the listener's comprehension, the more closely the brain wave patterns mirrored those of the storyteller.

Brain regions that do complex information processing seem to be engaged, Hasson explains: It's as though, "I'm trying to make your brain similar to mine in areas that really capture the meaning, the situation, the schema — the context of the world."

Other scientists turned up interesting activity in the parts of the brain engaged in making predictions. When we read, brain networks involved in deciphering — or imagining — another person's motives, and the areas involved in guessing what will happen next are activated, Neeley says. Imagining what drives other people — which feeds into our predictions — helps us see a situation from different perspectives . It can even shift our core beliefs, Neeley says, when we "come back out of the story world into regular life."

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Your Brain On Storytelling

Listeners, in turn, may keep thinking about the story and talk to others about it, she says, which reinforces the memory and, over time, can drive a broader change in attitudes.

Different formats of information — lists of facts, say, or charts — may be better suited to different situations, researchers say, but stories wield a particularly strong influence over our attitudes and behavior.

In health care contexts, for example, people are more likely to change their lifestyles when they see a character they identify with making the same change, notes Melanie Green , a communication professor at the University at Buffalo who studies the power of narrative, including in doctor-patient communication. Anecdotes can make health advice personally important to a patient, she finds. When you hear or read about someone you identify with who has taken up meditation , for example, you might be more likely to stick with it yourself.

Stories can alter broader attitudes as well, Green says — like our views on relationships, politics or the environment. Messages that feel like commands — even good advice coming from a friend — aren't always received well. If you feel like you're being pushed into a corner, you're more likely to push back. But if someone tells you a story about the time they, too, had to end a painful relationship, for example, the information will likely come across less like a lecture and more like a personal truth.

Neeley has been taking advantage of these effects to shift perceptions about science and scientists in her work with Story Collider. "We try and take everybody — all different people and perspectives — put them onstage, and hear what a life in science is really like," she says.

Solid information in any form is good, Green says. "But that's not necessarily enough." A vivid, emotional story "can give that extra push to make it feel more real or more important." If you look at the times somebody's beliefs have been changed, she says, it's often because of a story that "hits them in the heart."

This story adapted from an episode of NPR's weekday science podcast Short Wave.

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How Telling Stories Makes Us Human

O dds are, you’ve never heard the story of the wild pig and the seacow — but if you’d heard it, you’d be unlikely to forget it. The wild pig and seacow were best friends who enjoyed racing each other for sport. One day, however, the seacow hurt his legs and could run no more. So the wild pig carried him down to the sea, where they could race forever, side by side, one in the water, one on the land.

You can learn a lot from a tale like that — about friendship, cooperation, empathy and an aversion to inequality. And if you were a child in the Agta community — a hunter-gatherer population in The Philippines’ Isabela Province — you’d have grown up on the story, and on many others that teach similar lessons. The Agta are hardly the only peoples who practice storytelling; the custom has been ubiquitous in all cultures over all eras in all parts of the world. Now, a new study in Nature Communications , helps explain why: storytelling is a powerful means of fostering social cooperation and teaching social norms, and it pays valuable dividends to the storytellers themselves, improving their chances of being chosen as social partners, receiving community support and even having healthy offspring.

The researchers, led by anthropologist Daniel Smith of University College London, began their work by conducting a literature search of 89 different stories told by seven different forager cultures in Thailand, Malaysia, Africa and elsewhere. All of the tales carried lessons about social cooperation, empathy and justice, and many taught sexual equality too. The researchers then turned their attention specifically to the Agta, focusing on two communities, with a total of roughly 1,250 people, and conducted a number of experiments to determine the power and purpose of storytelling.

In the first experiment, the investigators asked 297 people across 18 villages in the two communities to vote for the best storytellers in their group. There was no limit on the number of people they could name. The votes in each of the camps were tallied, with higher overall scores taken as an indicator of a camp with more and better storytellers.

A different 290 people in the same camps were then asked to play a resource allocation game, in which people were given up to 12 tokens, each of which could be exchanged for about an eighth of a kilo of rice. They were told they could either keep all of the tokens or give as many as they wished to any or all of up to 12 other residents of the camp the researchers secretly chose. All of the subjects made their decisions privately, in the presence of only the researchers. (At the end of the experiment, all of the rice was distributed to all of the villagers according to the choices the subjects had made.)

Perhaps not surprisingly, the subjects kept an average of 62.6% of the rice tokens for themselves. But the actual total changed camp-to-camp, with every 1% advantage in the number of good storytellers in any community associated with a 2.2% increase in the amount of rice given away in the game. The more good storytellers in a village, in other words, the more generous people were. It is impossible to say definitively that the two were connected, but the fact remained, as the researchers wrote, that “Camps with a greater proportion of skilled storytellers, were associated with increased levels of cooperation.”

In the second experiment, 291 people in the same 18 camps were asked to name a maximum of five people in their own community with whom they would be happy to live. Of the 857 people who were named, those who had been designated as good storytellers in the previous experiment were nearly twice as likely to be chosen as those who weren’t. Remarkably, storytellers were chosen over people who had equally good reputations for hunting, fishing and foraging — which at least suggests that human beings may sometimes prize hearing an especially good story over eating an especially good meal.

Of course, nothing captures natural selection quite like the number of babies any one person has, and storytelling confers that benefit too — at least on the tellers. “Storytelling is a costly behavior,” write the researchers, “requiring an input of time and energy into practice, performance and cognitive processing.” But the payoff for making such an effort is big: When the investigators looked at family groups within the 18 camps, they found that skilled storytellers had, on average, .53 more living children than other people.

One reason for that is obvious: if you’re popular — and storytellers are — you’re more likely to have a partner. Another potential explanation is that the rest of the community is inclined to look favorably on the storyteller’s family and extend help when needed in the form of childcare, pitching in to look after a sick family member, or even offering financial or material support when necessary. Significantly, in the resource sharing game, it was storytellers who were likeliest to be recipients of rice. In the real world, all of this community support gives the children of the storyteller a small but real survival edge.

The investigators concede that one study is by no means conclusive and that further work needs to be conducted. That would especially include longitudinal studies in which the composition and welfare of camps with and without good storytellers is tracked over decades and generations. Over the course of those generations, of course, many more Agta children will continue to hear many more instructive stories: of the sun and the moon — a man and a woman — who fight to a draw in their battle for the sky and choose to cooperate to share the day and the night; of the monkey who became a hero for killing a giant, but was kept wise and humble with the knowledge that all monkeys — even him — must still fear the eagle. All of the stories will merely be make-believe — and all of them will be much more than that too.

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The Power of Storytelling in Scholarship Essays: Engage, Impress, Succeed

Table of Contents

Submitting a scholarship application is a complex assignment requiring hard work, dedication, and diligence. From gathering all the paperwork, filling it out, getting those letters of recommendation, and submitting it – it can get pretty exhausting and even daunting. Still, for many students, the most challenging part of the scholarship application process is writing the scholarship essay.

Writing a winning scholarship essay requires great writing skills and the ability to cover the given prompt. But, without adding the storytelling element to the mixture, your essay might end up unnoticed. This article breaks down the power of storytelling in scholarship essays and tells you how to engage and impress the scholarship committee and succeed in your academic goals.

What is a Scholarship Essay?

Before we discuss the power of storytelling in a scholarship essay, let’s define it. What is a scholarship essay, and how does it fit a scholarship application?

Simply put, a scholarship essay is an integral part of a scholarship application. It’s an essay written by the students, but Trust My Paper can help you write one if you’re insecure about your writing skills. They’re typically based on prompts the students should address, respond to, or answer.

The goal of writing a scholarship essay is for students to showcase their:

• personality
• experiences
• standpoints

The essay is supposed to combine all the right elements and balance between answering the prompt, showcasing your skills, highlighting your achievements, and still sounding grounded. It’s not easy to write one, but it’s crucial for your success.

Why is Storytelling Important?

The scholarship committee reads hundreds of applications that often look alike. It’s no wonder that only 1 in 8 college students receive a scholarship. Students often try so hard to impress the committee that they all start using the same writing style, examples, phrases, and essay forms.

This is why the committee is looking for someone to impress them, stand out from the rest, and leave a unique signature. Luckily, storytelling makes it possible for you to be the one that stands out.

So, storytelling is an important element of your scholarship essay for a number of reasons. Here are the most important ones.

1. Personal Mark

Storytelling allows you to show off your personality and help the committee picture who you are and what you’re like. Bringing your personality closer to them makes you more memorable and, thus a more obvious choice for assigning the scholarship.

2. Engagement

If your storytelling skills are on point, you’ll be able to grab the reader’s attention and keep them focused from top to bottom. They won’t just skim your essay and move on, but they’ll read the whole thing and listen to what you have to say.

3. Exemplifying

Through storytelling, you can show your skills and experience instead of just describing them. You can use examples to help the reader make the right conclusions about you and your traits.

4. Communicate

Finally, storytelling in an essay will help the committee realize that you have great communication skills. This is important, no matter the type of scholarship you’re applying for or the goals you’ve set.

As you can see, storytelling is beneficial for you on multiple levels and something to include in your scholarship essay, no questions asked.

How to Use Storytelling in a Scholarship Essay?

Now that you know how powerful storytelling can be for a scholarship essay, it’s time to look at the practical ways to use it.

There are several main steps that you should take after you decide that storytelling is the main tool you’ll use in your essay. We’ll break them down below and help you master this skill.

1. Brainstorm Story Ideas

The first thing you need to do is think about the essay prompt you’ve received and brainstorm story ideas that will help you answer it the right way. What story from your personal life, education journey, or valuable experience is a good fit to answer this prompt?

The prompt will typically ask about your career goals, life challenges, important people in your life, passion, your community, and more. Find the right connection and choose a story directly answering the prompt.

2. Open Strong

The beginning of your essay story needs to grab the reader’s attention. So, start strong with a sentence that will give them a glimpse of what the essay is about, shock, intrigue, or surprise them.

3. Build the Story

Now that you have their attention, set the scene for the rest of the story. Provide context and all the information necessary for understanding it. Don’t overdo it with descriptions and specific details, as you have a limited number of words for your essay.

4. Draw the Connection

Your story and the essay prompt now need to be connected. The readers have to find this connection and understand how the story relates to the prompt.

Conclude your story by reflecting on how this event or experience made you who you are or influenced your academic and professional path. Write about the things you’ve learned and the motivation it gave you for the future.

6. Edit & Proofread

Finally, if you want your story to be effective and leave a strong impact on the reader, you must make sure it’s written professionally. Edit it to keep it well organized and create smooth transitions from one paragraph to the other. Proofread it to eliminate all spelling or grammar mistakes.

Make sure to keep it concise and allow the story to flow by using natural language and simple sentence structures. This will make it more appealing and believable to the reader.

Final Thoughts

The power of storytelling in a scholarship essay is not to be underestimated. It can help you bring out your best qualities, leave a strong impression, and succeed in your academic goals. Using it the right way is key to making the wow effect, so make sure you read our advice carefully.

Hopefully, with a little practice, you’ll nail your next scholarship essay by using your storytelling skills.

Author’s Bio

Alice Barrios is a college advisor and a blogger. She writes about college applications, professional development, scholarships, internships, and more student-related topics. Her goal is to help students lessen the stress of these academic transitions and make the most out of their education journey.

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Importance and Power of Storytelling

Introduction.

People have been telling stories for thousands of years and will continue to do so in thousands of years ahead. The reasons for such extraordinary longevity of stories are multiple. First of all, stories reflect the world around us and help us understand our place in it.

Ancient people had been creating epic poems describing heroic deeds and significant events from their history. Later, novels became a popular type of literature that depicted characters in various life situations and allowed us to identify with them or look at our lives from a different angle.

Stories are powerful because they shape our worldview and help us understand other people’s perspectives. For example, stories about slavery cause one to realize why this phenomenon should never happen again. Moreover, reading a story written from another person’s perspective makes one more empathetic and conscious of other people’s experiences.

Stories are also a significant source of knowledge since they help people share wisdom and disseminate moral principles. Since childhood, we are told stories in the form of fairytales that teach us to distinguish right from wrong. In adulthood, we hear stories from our peers and elderly people who share their experiences, caution us against mistakes, and encourage us to act more wisely. The educational power of stories is so extensive that even numerous holy books, such as the Bible, use stories to convey their ethical and moral teachings to people.

Overall, stories serve as a guide through the hardships of life. One can solve some technical problems using the information found in various sources. However, in order to find answers to crucial existential questions and solutions to life issues, one will need stories.

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The Power of Storytelling: Crafting a Compelling College Admissions Essay

As high school students embark on the challenging journey of college applications, the college admissions essay stands as a crucial opportunity to showcase their unique personalities, experiences, and aspirations. While academic achievements and test scores provide quantitative data, the college admissions essay breathes life into those numbers and allows admissions officers to connect with applicants on a personal level. In this blog, we explore the role of storytelling in crafting a compelling college admissions essay, highlighting the significance of narrative and the impact of professional college admissions consultants in shaping a successful application.

The Essence of Storytelling in College Admissions Essays

Human beings are hardwired to respond to stories. From childhood fairytales to blockbuster movies, storytelling captivates our hearts and minds. Similarly, a well-crafted college admissions essay that employs storytelling techniques can elicit an emotional response from the reader – the admissions officer. A compelling narrative not only presents the applicant’s accomplishments but also delves into their growth, challenges, and the lessons learned. By conveying their journey through storytelling, applicants can make a lasting impression and create a memorable experience for the reader. Let’s delve deeper into how stories create a lasting impact and help you stand out from the crowd.

• Emotional Connection : Stories have the power to evoke emotions, and the same applies to college admissions essays. Admissions officers read countless essays, and a well-crafted narrative can create an emotional connection that makes an applicant stand out. By sharing personal experiences, challenges, and triumphs, applicants can tap into the reader’s emotions, evoking empathy and a sense of relatability.
• Memorability: A compelling story has a lasting impact on the reader. When an admissions officer reads a memorable essay, it stays with them long after reading. Crafting an essay with storytelling techniques helps applicants differentiate themselves from the sea of applications. By engaging the reader’s imagination and leaving a lasting impression, applicants increase their chances of being remembered.
• Demonstrating Personal Growth: College admissions officers are not only interested in an applicant’s accomplishments and personal growth and development. By weaving a narrative that showcases the challenges faced and the lessons learned, applicants can demonstrate their ability to overcome obstacles and evolve as individuals. This provides insight into an applicant’s character, resilience, and maturity.
• Authenticity and Self-Expression: Stories provide a platform for applicants to express themselves authentically. Through storytelling, applicants can showcase their unique perspectives, values, and experiences. This allows them to present a genuine and sincere portrayal of who they are, which can be more compelling than merely listing achievements and qualifications. Admissions officers are looking for students who will bring diverse perspectives and contribute to the college community, and storytelling enables applicants to convey their individuality effectively.
• Engaging the Reader’s Imagination: A well-told story captures the reader’s attention and engages their imagination. By using descriptive language, vivid imagery, and sensory details, applicants can transport the admissions officer into their world, enabling them to visualize the experiences and events being described. This immersive experience keeps the reader engaged throughout the essay, making it a memorable and enjoyable read.
• Structuring the Essay: Storytelling techniques help applicants structure their essays effectively. A narrative arc, which includes a beginning, middle, and end, creates a sense of coherence and purpose in the essay. Applicants can create a compelling and well-structured narrative that keeps the reader engaged by employing storytelling elements such as introducing a conflict, building suspense, and offering resolution.
• Highlighting Personal Qualities: Storytelling allows applicants to indirectly highlight their personal qualities and strengths. Instead of explicitly stating their positive attributes, applicants can demonstrate them through their choices, actions, and how they navigate challenges in their stories. This provides a more nuanced and authentic portrayal of their character, allowing admissions officers to gain insight into their potential as future students.

Crafting a Compelling Essay: The Role of Storytelling Techniques

Crafting a compelling college admissions essay requires more than listing achievements and accolades. It involves the art of storytelling, which brings life and depth to the applicant’s experiences and aspirations. Here, we delve into the role of storytelling techniques in creating a compelling essay:

Here are some essential storytelling techniques that can enhance the impact of an essay:

• Engaging Introductions: The opening of the essay sets the tone and captures the reader’s attention. A compelling introduction can be achieved by starting with an intriguing anecdote, a thought-provoking question, or a vivid description. It should be designed to make the reader curious and eager to continue reading.

Example: Instead of beginning with a generic statement like “I have always been passionate about science,” try starting with a specific incident or experience that sparked your interest, such as “The moment I witnessed a chemical reaction causing vibrant colors to dance in the lab, I knew I had discovered my passion for chemistry.”

• Descriptive Language: Using descriptive language enhances the sensory experience for the reader, making the essay more engaging and memorable. Describing sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures helps bring the story to life and allows the reader to visualize the conveyed events and emotions.

Example: Instead of simply stating “I was nervous,” provide sensory details that illustrate the feeling, such as “My heart pounded against my chest, and a prickling sensation crept up my spine as I stepped onto the stage, the spotlight glaring down like a searing sun.”

• Conflict and Resolution: Incorporating a central conflict or challenge faced by the applicant adds depth and interest to the essay. Applicants can demonstrate resilience, problem-solving skills, and personal growth by describing the obstacles encountered and the strategies employed to overcome them.

Example: Share a story where you faced a significant obstacle, such as leading a team project with conflicting personalities. Describe the difficulties encountered, how you approached the situation, and the positive outcomes achieved through effective communication and collaboration.

• Show, Don’t Tell: Rather than simply stating accomplishments or qualities, showing them through specific examples and anecdotes is more impactful. Describing experiences, actions, and outcomes allows the reader to draw conclusions about the applicant’s character and abilities.

Example: Instead of saying, “I am a dedicated leader,” describe a situation where you took the initiative, rallied a team, and achieved a common goal, highlighting your leadership qualities through your actions and their impact.

• Theme and Cohesion: An effective essay should have a clear theme or message that ties the various elements together. The theme can be based on personal values, growth, or a central idea that unifies the narrative. Ensuring cohesion throughout the essay helps maintain a sense of purpose and readability.

Example: If the theme of the essay is resilience, consistently refer back to the theme by showcasing different instances where you demonstrated resilience in the face of challenges, connecting them to your personal growth and future aspirations.

By incorporating these storytelling techniques, applicants can create a compelling narrative that engages the reader and leaves a lasting impression. It is important to strike a balance between showcasing personal experiences and conveying relevant information about one’s academic and extracurricular achievements. The goal is to provide insights into the applicant’s identity and their potential contributions to the college community. Remember to revise and refine the essay, seeking feedback from mentors, teachers, or college admissions consultants to ensure that the storytelling elements are effectively incorporated, and the overall essay is compelling and impactful.

The Role of Professional College Admissions Consultants:

Recognizing the significance of the admissions essay, many students seek assistance from college admissions consultants. These experts offer valuable guidance, ensuring the applicants’ stories are effectively conveyed to officers. College admissions consultants can help identify compelling narratives, fine-tune writing, and provide constructive feedback throughout the essay crafting. Their expertise can lead to an essay that resonates deeply with the reader and increases the likelihood of acceptance.

In the competitive realm of college admissions, a compelling essay that showcases an applicant’s unique personality, experiences, and aspirations can make all the difference. Storytelling techniques breathe life into the application, allowing admissions officers to connect with the candidate beyond their academic achievements. Through powerful narratives, students can stand out among the thousands of applicants and leave a lasting impression on the reader. Additionally, the support of college admissions consultants can further refine and elevate the essay, enhancing the chances of securing admission to their dream college. Remember, your story is your superpower – use it wisely. Happy writing!

Write engaging essays with Rostrum

At Rostrum, our experienced mentors assist students in honing their storytelling skills by providing feedback on essay drafts. They ensure the essays employ engaging storytelling techniques to captivate the reader and leave a lasting impression. They also carefully review and edit essay drafts to offer constructive feedback. They help students refine their writing, improve clarity, and enhance the essay’s overall quality while ensuring it aligns with the desired theme and message. For more information, schedule a free consultation today.

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The Power of Storytelling in Public Relations: Understanding the 20 Master Plots

Storytelling has been part of human activity for thousands of years. Stories have the power to inform, persuade, elicit emotional responses, build support for coalitions and initiatives, and build civil society. This essay describes the 20 master story plots used throughout history,as well as the rhetorical, persuasive, and message design skills used to create compellingstories. The master plots and narrative techniques are advanced as important communi-cation and academic skills to teach storytelling to professionals, and to explain narrativetheory to public relations scholars. Emplotment, narrative theory, and Burkean identifica-tion and form, are contextualized as narrative tools, along with “master plots” from theprofessional writing literature.

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David M Boje

Enron's financial re-engineering was accomplished with 'quasi-objects' and 'metatheatre.'I explore the relevance of this quasi-object dramatics analysis for organizational behavior, organizational theory and strategy. Through a textual analysis of Enron documents, news articles, congressional transcripts, and interviews, I illustrate how Enron's LJM partnerships are an example of quasi-objects. In this sense quasi-objects are a hybrid of theatrics and economics that sustains fraud in ways that seduce spectators to ...

Masters of Philosophy Thesis for US Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies According to the current Air Force Doctrine Document on Leadership and Force Development (AFDD 1-1, 8 November 2011), telling the Air Force story is an important leadership competency. Additionally, officers are increasingly told to consider the role of strategic narratives in military operations. Unfortunately, Professional Military Education (PME) has no coherent approach to teaching storytelling skills. This neglect reflects a larger cultural bias against storytelling that has roots in the beginning of Western civilization. Other large organizations and professions, however, have already realized the power of stories and adopted programs that integrate storytelling into leadership and management practices. Stories are especially potent tools for innovation. Thus, when General Kwast charged Air University with producing heroic innovators, the growing body of literature on narratives was a natural starting point to look for a new approach within Air Force PME. Although there are many ways to nurture storytelling skills, the use of fiction is well supported by theoretical and empirical evidence. This thesis examines the use of a science fiction novel, Ender’s Game, which has content and a structure particularly apt for the challenge of encouraging innovative airmen.

University of Florida

Jasper C Fessmann

This dissertation focused on developing the theoretical foundations of the interdisciplinary field of public interest communications (PIC). It expands on earlier work of a) presenting the case for considering PIC as an emerging academic field of strategic communications to advance social causes (Fessmann, 2016), b) defining the field (Fessmann, 2016), c) establishing differences and relations to public relations (PR) (Fessmann, 2016, 2017), and d) PIC’s grounding in strategy in the original historical context (Fessmann, 2018). The dissertation used qualitative grounded theory methodology to identify key concepts and features of PIC. This research analyzed 22 in-depth interviews conducted with central figures in PIC including the presidents/chairman and two vice presidents of the three largest PIC agencies. Participants were specifically selected because of their ability to analyze critical areas and the development of the field based on usually 20-40 years of work experience in PIC. This dissertation proposes a new PIC definition and a typology of the degree to which certain communications areas serve the public interest or do harm. Furthermore, a spiral process model of PR activism and PIC is proposed. Drawing on expert opinion and theories of PR, activism, and social movement literature, the model identified eight distinct phases that a PIC social movement must go through to achieve sustained social change. Each step of the process requires different communications efforts and thus understanding the various phases will make social movement communications more effective. The model and the dissertation findings overall will be useful in developing theory about and teaching PIC and strategic activism communications.

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The Power of Digital Storytelling

What Is Digital Storytelling?

The benefits of digital storytelling, storytelling as a way of thinking, quick-win digital storytelling projects, human-centered experiences.

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The process of creating story projects helps students develop the mindset and workflow they need to thrive in the future.

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• Academic vocabulary ­development
• Visual literacy
• Editing and curation

Interview an Expert

• Public speaking and interpersonal skills
• Question development
• Qualitative research methods
• Scheduling meetings
• Importance of primary sources and expertise

Anthology Projects

• Collaboration

Tips for Incorporating Digital Stories in Your Classroom

Start small. Take a single assignment, like a report or presentation, and turn it into a digital storytelling project by having students produce an explainer video or podcast instead.

Keep stories short (a 1–3-page book or 60-second video, for example).

Use what you’ve got. Smartphones and tablets have built-in cameras and microphones, and graphics apps like Canva or Adobe Express can be downloaded on any device.

Honor the medium and know the limits of what it can convey. In the same way a movie version of a novel is different from the original book, so too are digital stories from their traditional writing equivalents. Dial back expectations of how much content students can cover in a single story project.

Storytelling With Purpose

Reimagine learning with this book’s practical advice, case studies, and strategies on using digital storytelling as a vehicle for student inquiry and assessment.

Bobek, E., & Tversky, B. (2016). Creating visual explanations improves learning. Cognitive Research: Principles and ­Implications, 1 (1), 27.

Di Vesta, F. J., & Peverly, S. T. (1984). The effects of encoding variability, processing activity, and rule–examples sequence on the transfer of conceptual rules. Journal of Educational Psychology, 76 (1), 108–119.

Kidd, C., & Hayden, B. (2015). The ­psychology and neuroscience of ­curiosity. Neuron, 88 (4), 449–460.

Miller, S., & Pennycuff, L. (2008). The power of story: Using storytelling to improve literacy learning. Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives in ­Education, 1 (1), 36–43.

NAMLE. (2020, September 18). What is media literacy? Media literacy defined . https://namle.net/resources/media-literacy-defined/

Saavedra, A. R., Liu Y., Haderlein, S. K., Rapaport, A., Garland, M., Hoepfner, D., et al. (2021). Project-based learning boosts student achievement in AP course. Lucas Education Research.

Summers, E., & Dickinson, G. (2012). A longitudinal investigation of project–based instruction and student achievement in high school social studies. Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning, 6 (1).

Michael Hernandez is an award-winning teacher, speaker, and author in Los Angeles whose work focuses on digital and civic literacy, project-based learning, and innovative teaching strategies. His new book, Storytelling With Purpose: Digital Projects to Ignite Student Curiosity , will be published by ISTE in February 2024.

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On Eve Of Her First TV Awards, New BAFTA Chair Sara Putt Talks "Celebrating The Power Of Storytelling" During "Grim" Times & The Industry's Collective Battle To Combat Bullying & Harassment

EXCLUSIVE: This Sunday’s BAFTA TV Awards will “celebrate and remember the power of storytelling” at a “challenging” time for the industry, according to the new chair of the 77-year-old body.

Speaking exclusively to Deadline in the days leading up to the London ceremony, Sara Putt, who replaced Krishnendu Majumdar last year, said the awards will partly act as a tonic against the bad times, allowing “a community to come together, network, and be creative and supportive of each other.”

She acknowledged that 2023 was a “challenging year for many in the industry, whether freelancers or small indies,” coming a few months after BAFTA research found one third are considering leaving.

“We [at BAFTA] have many roles to play and it is important when times are hard to celebrate and remember the power of storytelling,” Putt said.

Nominated shows about local British stories such as BBC One’s The Sixth Commandment or ITV’s The Long Shadow show that great storytelling can be “inspirational” during times of strife, she added. Smash hit Mr Bates vs. the Post Office was ineligible for this year’s awards as it premiered in January 2024, but will likely be a strong contender for the 2025 gongs.

Without giving much away, Putt said her maiden BAFTA TV Awards speech will touch on these themes of hardship. Her BAFTA TV Craft Awards address two weeks ago labelled the situation for behind the camera talent “grim” amidst the economic slowdown and fallout from U.S. strikes.

She said BAFTA can play a role in helping the community through the hardship by being an “academy of practitioners” across film, TV and also the gaming industry. “Career agility is important and we’re talking about breaking down silos between film, TV and games so individuals can best equip themselves to maximize opportunity in different areas.”

Noms show “mixed economy”

The Crown, Black Mirror, Happy Valley and Top Boy are all nominated on multiple occasions for this year’s BAFTAs and Putt said the clutch of noms shows that the UK TV industry is a “mixed economy,” replete with big streamer shows alongside breakthrough broadcasting talent such as Kat Sadler, the writer of scripted comedy nominee Such Brave Girls for the BBC.

The awards body has in the past been placed under the microscope for its lack of diverse nominations but Putt said this year’s nominees are broadly in line with last year’s in terms of proportion of people from under-represented backgrounds, with high-profile examples including Top Boy’ s Kane Robinson. The Lazarus Project’s Paapa Essiedu and Black Mirror’s Anjana Vasan.

BAFTA has input both at the start and end of the diversity pipeline, Putt explained, helping people from under-represented backgrounds into the industry at junior level and then showcasing their talents once they have been nominated at awards level. Since becoming chair, the body has focused on improving the landscape for those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds who have “limited opportunities,” she said.

Questions have repeatedly been raised over whether more international stars should be given opportunities to win BAFTAs for shows created by Brits such as Succession duo Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin, who are ineligible because they are not British and do not regularly work or live in the UK.

But while not overly weighing in on the work of the BAFTA TV committee she used to oversee, Putt said “you have to bare in mind these are the British Academy awards, are about the amazing TV landscape in this country and within that we want to celebrate British talent,” although she is happy to celebrate British talent making waves in international TV.

Putt has been running Sara Putt Associates, an agency that represents off-screen talent, for more than three decades, making her just the second BAFTA chair who is simultaneously an agent.

She said this experience helps give her a unique view on the industry and how to celebrate talent via BAFTA.

“My job is about nurturing talent and BAFTA’s is about celebrating, inspiring and supporting talent so the lovely thing for me is that they are all part of the same hole,” said Putt. “I wouldn’t want to be hubristic [about my agency] but there is absolutely some crossover both in terms of BAFTA’s work though our awards and through initiatives in which we support talent on a very intersectional level.”

Elsewhere, Putt used her first letter to members in September 2023 to make a coded reference to the allegations made against Russell Brand, along with wider issues around bullying and harassment in the UK film and TV industries. Eight months on, she told us combatting bullying and harassment remains a joint effort that BAFTA is working on with the likes of the BFI, The Film & Television Charity and new independent standards authority CIISA, coming a few years after Doctor Who actor Noel Clarke’s alleged behavior was exposed by a Guardian investigation on the same weekend he was given an Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema BAFTA. Both Brand and Clarke deny the allegations made against them.

“The work is ongoing and we all have a responsibility,” said Putt. “The more we can share information and run initiatives, the more we can put in place both preventative measures and find ways that people can safely call out bad behavior. These conversations are complex, nuanced and incredibly important.”

Reflecting on her near-first year in the BAFTA job, a role she took on immediately after Jane Millichip became CEO, Putt said it had been a “learning curve,” and that the storied organization is “more complicated than I could have imagined.”

“I am a punter [at the awards] as much as anyone else and so to be able to sit in that audience and enjoy an amazing show is always exciting,” she added. “When you look at the rigor of our jury system, you see why it is a huge, huge deal to be nominated by your peers. Jurors say this is the best conversation they have about TV all year.”

The BAFTA TV Awards take place on Sunday. Deadline revealed earlier this week that BAFTA President Prince William and wife Kate Middleton will not attend but that William has instead recorded a video message.

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• Prince William & Kate Middleton Will Not Attend Sunday's BAFTA TV Awards; BAFTA President William To Record Video Message Instead
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Book Review: Memoirist Lilly Dancyger’s penetrating essays explore the power of female friendships

This cover image released by Dial Press shows “First Love” by Lilly Dancyger. (Dial Press via AP)

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Who means more to you — your friends or your lovers? In a vivid, thoughtful and nuanced collection of essays, Lilly Dancyger explores the powerful role that female friendships played in her chaotic upbringing marked by her parents’ heroin use and her father’s untimely death when she was only 12.

“First Love: Essays on Friendship” begins with a beautiful paean to her cousin Sabina, who was raped and murdered at age 20 on her way home from a club. As little kids, their older relatives used to call them Snow White and Rose Red after the Grimm’s fairy tale, “two sisters who are not rivals or foils, but simply love each other.”

That simple, uncomplicated love would become the template for a series of subsequent relationships with girls and women that helped her survive her self-destructive adolescence and provided unconditional support as she scrambled to create a new identity as a “hypercompetent” writer, teacher and editor. “It’s true that I’ve never been satisfied with friendships that stay on the surface. That my friends are my family, my truest beloveds, each relationship a world of its own,” she writes in the title essay “First Love.”

The collection stands out not just for its elegant, unadorned writing but also for the way she effortlessly pivots between personal history and spot-on cultural criticism that both comments on and critiques the way that girls and women have been portrayed — and have portrayed themselves — in the media, including on online platforms like Tumblr and Instagram.

For instance, she examines the 1994 Peter Jackson film, “Heavenly Creatures,” based on the true story of two teenage girls who bludgeoned to death one of their mothers. And in the essay “Sad Girls,” about the suicide of a close friend, she analyzes the allure of self-destructive figures like Sylvia Plath and Janis Joplin to a certain type of teen, including herself, who wallows in sadness and wants to make sure “the world knew we were in pain.”

In the last essay, “On Murder Memoirs,” Dancyger considers the runaway popularity of true crime stories as she tries to explain her decision not to attend the trial of the man charged with killing her cousin — even though she was trained as a journalist and wrote a well-regarded book about her late father that relied on investigative reporting. “When I finally sat down to write about Sabina, the story that came out was not about murder at all,” she says. “It was a love story.”

Readers can be thankful that it did.

AP book reviews: https://apnews.com/hub/book-reviews

The Rise of Hitler: the Path to Power

This essay about the rise of Hitler elucidates the complex factors that propelled him to power in Germany. It explores the aftermath of World War I, the impact of the Treaty of Versailles, and the fragile political landscape of the Weimar Republic. Through skilled propaganda, strategic alliances with elites, and exploiting societal discontent, Hitler consolidated his authority, ultimately leading to the establishment of a totalitarian regime. By understanding the circumstances and decisions that facilitated Hitler’s ascent, we gain insight into the dangers of political extremism and the importance of safeguarding democratic principles.

How it works

Adolf Hitler’s ascent to power in Germany during the early 20th century remains one of the most pivotal and disturbing chapters in modern history. His rise was not a sudden occurrence but rather a culmination of various factors, societal conditions, and strategic maneuvers that ultimately propelled him to the helm of the German state. To comprehend how Hitler came to power, one must delve into the complex interplay of historical events, political climate, and the charismatic appeal of his leadership.

Central to Hitler’s rise was the tumultuous aftermath of World War I and the crippling impact of the Treaty of Versailles on Germany. The treaty imposed harsh reparations, territorial losses, and military restrictions, fueling widespread resentment and economic instability. In this atmosphere of discontent, Hitler’s nationalist rhetoric resonated deeply with many Germans who felt betrayed by their government and humiliated on the world stage. His promises of national resurgence and restoration of German pride provided a compelling narrative for those seeking redemption and renewal.

Moreover, the fragile political landscape of the Weimar Republic, characterized by weak coalition governments and frequent social unrest, created fertile ground for extremist movements like the Nazi Party to flourish. Amidst economic turmoil and ideological polarization, Hitler skillfully exploited the failures of the existing political establishment, positioning himself as a savior figure offering radical solutions to Germany’s woes. Through tireless propaganda efforts, mass rallies, and targeted messaging, he cultivated a cult of personality and garnered widespread support among disaffected segments of society.

Crucially, Hitler’s rise to power was facilitated by the strategic alliances he forged with conservative elites and industrialists who saw him as a bulwark against communism and a means to preserve their own interests. By leveraging their financial resources and political influence, Hitler was able to consolidate his grip on power and neutralize potential opposition within the establishment. The Reichstag fire of 1933 provided the pretext for the suspension of civil liberties and the enactment of emergency decrees, paving the way for the authoritarian regime that would soon follow.

Furthermore, the failure of mainstream political parties to effectively counter Hitler’s appeal and unite against the Nazi threat played a decisive role in his ascent. Fragmented and divided, the political opposition was unable to present a coherent alternative to Hitler’s vision, allowing him to exploit divisions and weaknesses within their ranks. The enabling Act of 1933, which granted Hitler dictatorial powers, marked the culmination of his rise to power and the beginning of a dark chapter in German history.

In conclusion, Adolf Hitler’s rise to power was a complex and multifaceted process shaped by historical circumstances, political opportunism, and the manipulation of mass psychology. By exploiting widespread discontent, leveraging alliances with influential elites, and capitalizing on the failures of the Weimar Republic, Hitler was able to consolidate his power and establish a totalitarian regime that would plunge the world into chaos and destruction. Understanding the factors that facilitated Hitler’s ascent is essential not only for comprehending the past but also for safeguarding against similar threats to democracy and human rights in the future.

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