. Think about stories you've heard. What is memorable? What got your attention? What was a good story, perhaps a story you'd like to tell others?A good story to me relates to my life, and teaches or makes me aware of something that helps me in some way. Whenever I am feeling really tired, I read one of The Dune Collection from the 6-book set: Dune; Dune Messiah; Children of Dune; God Emperor of Dune; Heretics of Dune, or Chapterhouse Dune
. These books energize me because I can relate well to the characters, their noble cause, and the forgiveness of the flaws that make us human. I remember that my life is guided by a larger principle; a principle that transcends the trivia of everyday life.The point I am trying to make is that if the story is not important and relevant to someone, then that person is not likely to spend time hearing, reading, and/or watching the story. Content is key, and no matter how well something is packaged, if the content is not worthy then the story will not reach a mass audience.
Consider storytelling as persuasion. Read this: The Six Stories You Need to Know How to Tell. Do you agree with the author that you have to establish your credibility because there are so many scams out there and people have become jaded? Do you agree that storytelling is the ultimate persuasive tool?
The Internet has opened up new opportunities for creative storytelling. Website design is now "Experience Design". People spend an average of 8 seconds when deciding whether to stay or leave a website. Can people understand your story well enough in 8 seconds to decide to stay and learn more, buy your product, subscribe to your blog, hire your services? Can you create a significant user experience in 8 seconds so that people have enough motivation, interest, stimulation, and awareness of possible benefits to stay and interact more?
One new storytelling form online is Alternate Reality Games (ARGs). For example, Six to Start has created an ARG that is attracting people's attention. This type of game is likely to proliferate as people turn to the Internet more and more for entertainment and as media converge. If you were to tell a story online, how could you utilize the unique features of the Internet to create a more interactive, challenging, novel, exciting, well told story?
Finally, storytelling is an interface, a starting point. What we really want is to develop relationships with people. When creating a story, you have to keep the audience in mind. However, let's not forget that the audience has some responsibility also. Communication is not a one-way street. Communication requires at least 2 people interacting. While with tradition media such as print media, movies, tv, and radio, the audience seems to have no voice or no presence in the communication, with the Internet the interaction between message designer and message recipient is almost immediate and expected. Why not get the audience to participate in the design of the story? Watch this video: Human Computation about how to get the audeince to work for you.
1 comment:
I agree with the statement that “message designers are story tellers.” In order for a message designer to get their audience interested in their topic and grasp their attention, they must immediately attract the individual. Once attracting the individual’s attention, they must maintain their attention span so that they do not lose interest.
An example that you used was the internet. The message designer for a website must capture the viewer’s attention immediately and withhold it so that the viewer continues to look at the site. In a sense, they must tell a story that appeal to the targeted audience. This can be done visually or verbally.
It is vital that a message designer tells a story that appeal to the targeted audience. I know that if I do not find something that appeals to me on a website I will immediately “x” it out. This is a prime reason why web designers are continually improving websites, and the features on them. They want to continually grab their target audience’s attention, in hopes that they are persistent with their admittance to the website.
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