Strengthening the Stories That Unite Us
Strengthening the Stories That Unite Us
Looking out at the not-so-normal-new-normal as we near the end of 2020, Dora Meade and Elena Blackmore have been thinking about the key narrative *tactics* currently in play and how social and political movements should respond: The co-option of language…
Action is the antidote to despair. Joan Baez Resources for communicating about COVID-19: National Covid-19 Messaging Document ASO Communications Talking About COVID-19: A Call for Racial, Economic, and Health Equity The Opportunity Agenda Progressive Framing of the Coronavirus Pandemic The…
There’s a 2011 study in which researchers tested the effects of framing crime using the metaphors of either crime-as-virus or crime-as-beast. Participants in the study read one version of the following: “Crime is a {wild beast preying on/virus infecting} the…
Analyses of language reveal the extraordinary fact that we use around one metaphor for every ten seconds of speech or written work. If that sounds like too much, it’s because you’re so used to thinking metaphorically – to speaking of…
Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. Milton Friedman So what are the ideas that are lying around? You…
When we drop fear, we can draw nearer to people [in some ways at least], we can draw nearer to the earth, we can draw nearer to all the heavenly creatures that surround us. bell hooks We have in the…
Just a few weeks ago, this moment was unimaginable. We would not have believed the headlines, or been able to picture how the high street looks today. COVID-19 has abruptly pressed pause on anything that resembles ‘normal’ day-to-day life. This…