Webinar titled Hear Me Out: Making Meaningful Connections through Storytelling, part of The Science Network Workshop Series, put together by the Union of Concerned Scientists. The second half of the workshop was offered by Michele Roberts, from the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform.
7. Modified from Liz Neeley
"The value of
science is not
universal across
every community.”
Dr. Danielle Lee
@DNLee5
8. Science discourse is seldom
diverse & contextualized,
which further marginalizes
certain groups &
communities.
Making meaningful
connections through
storytelling can help counter
that marginalization.
9. Getting started
• Know your audience
• Know your goal
• Know yourself
• Structure your story
• Give people a reason to
care
• SO WHAT?
10. Practical advice
• Use analogies,
metaphors,
images/imagery
• Engage first,
details later
• Empower, don’t
alienate
• Be careful of making
assumptions
• Beware of the
dangers of a single
story
• Listen
• Be memorable
• PRACTICE
Thank you, it is a great pleasure for me to be here today.
I would like to especially thank Melissa Varga and the Union of Concerned Scientists for inviting me to be part of this webinar.
Before we start here’s where you can find me, CienciaPR and iBiology on Twitter
Today I will talk about storytelling and how you can use it as a tool to make meaningful connections and make science more inclusive
Our brains love stories.
Stories and storytelling are inherent to the human experience. They help people connect with the message being delivered.
Storytelling provides scientists with a powerful way to help people make personal, meaningful connections with science.
It helps people go beyond the data, into the…
So what of your science.
Storytelling can help you convey why your work, your research, your science matters.
Because stories help people relate, connect to your science, storytelling can help you empower and not alienate underserved communities. It is important that we remember that there are many communities, like African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans, for example, that have been disenfranchised by science. That have been historically excluded and even abused by science.
Storytelling offers opportunities for meaningful dialogue and empowerment. Storytelling can empower communities to take ownership of science.
Of course it is incredibly important that before coming in to work or interact in any way with an underserved community that you do your homework. That you get to know them, their history, their social justice issues so that you can use storytelling as a tool for partnership and storytelling. You can check out last week’s webinar workshop on Social Justice and Partnerships with Communities, which has some really great advice. It was posted online this morning.
Because storytelling is about your audience, because it can help you engage and empower them, storytelling can be a powerful tool to make science more inclusive.
Something than can be easy to forget is that the perceptions of the value of science are not universal across communities.
Storytelling is a powerful way to establish meaningful connections to help counter that marginalization. It can help you empower underserved communities and individuals to be equal partners and participants in science.
So if you want to get started with storytelling to communicate your science, what are some things you should think about.
First and foremost know your audience: who are they?
Know your goal: what is the purpose of your message? What do you want to accomplish?
Know yourself: each person has a slightly different style. Know what works for you and what doesn’t.
Structure your story in a way that engages and interests your audience. Every presentation should have a hook, meat and payoff.
Connect your story to real life. Why should people care? In other words, what is the so what of what you are communicating?
Be careful of making assumptions about the reality of your audience, about what they know or don’t know
Remember, people have diverse experiences and perspectives, there is more than one way to see and value science
Listen: this relates to knowing your audience. Who are they? What do they want? What can they offer?
Think about ways to help people remember your so what: how can you use storytelling to make your message resonate?
Practice: storytelling is a skill and you have to practice. Practicing will help you know yourself, figure out what works, what doesn’t, it will help you get better
Storytelling powerful way to interact, engage, build trust with communities traditionally not represented in science and thus an important tool in your science communication toolbox