Hello narrative experts, strategic communicators, storytellers, artists, media mavericks and people who like words,
Two weeks ago, on Friday 27th March, Alice Sachrajda convened a group to discuss the role of strategic communicators in writing the unfolding story of Covid-19.
This call was to share updates, align efforts, and look ahead beyond the immediate crisis to the new normal and future societal shifts.
Four different subgroups formed:
Sub-group 1: Influence immediate language, frames and narratives
Sub-group 2: Source, guide, place and amplify stories
Sub-group 3: Coordinate meta-narratives and shape future vision
Sub-group 4: Counter and minimise hateful and xenophobic content
We are Sub-group 3. We focus on longer-term narratives and shaping future vision.
This created a group of people who care about a common purpose coming together. We all come from different backgrounds and organisations, but we care about helping frame a 'Larger Us' future, instead of a ‘Them and Us’.
Many have been writing already about the emerging narratives of a post-Covid world, and offering tips and advice for framing Covid and thinking globally in order to guide us towards a ‘Larger Us’.
On the flipside, others have been warning about the ultimate gaslighting that could happen in the next months, the possibility of disaster capitalism profiting off the crisis, or the risk of greater polarity emerging out of this time.
Within it all, there is a call for a different kind of storytelling needed, a deeper realm of imagining, an understanding that global narratives need to unite us behind a ‘Larger Us’ - and new stories of what it means to be human.
This takes a different kind of imagining - a moral imagining of a better future that responds to the fact that only 9% Britons report wanting life to return to 'normal' after lockdown.
Next week’s Zoom conversation
We want to invite you to take part in a Zoom conversation on Thursday. In Alice’s breakdown of the different parts of the story, this is the "Sub-group 3" space for people who want to think about how we write the final chapters of the story. Ahead of the call, please take 3 minutes to read this moral imaginations story.
When: Thursday, April 23, from 5-6:15pm
Where: on Zoom - register here: https://bit.ly/sg3-narratives. Please feel free to forward the invite to those who you think should be there.
What: A first kick-off meeting with others interested in SG3 to share background, interests, and find alignment in moving forward
The project is supported by Unbound Philanthropy and Migration Exchange who are helping convene a high-impact network of strategic communication organisations in response to Covid-19. This has included NEON, IMIX, IPPR, Collective Psychology Project, University of Sydney Policy Lab, More in Common, Comms Lab so far.
Next steps
We will convene the first kick-off group on Thursday 23rd April 5 - 6:15pm
We will then decide on a rhythm for the following 8 weeks
We will schedule a programme of group processes, guest speakers and discussions for the following months
We look forward to seeing you on the first call.
NARWHAL