Baron Ponders

Storytelling in Our Essential Age April 13, 2009

The news of the Seattle PostGlobe project from No News is Bad News gives me hope for our poor kicked-to-the-curb journalists.

According to Kerry Murakami’s bio at the event, the Seattle PostGlobe is “a daily news site with 29 former PI journalists in partnership with KCTS 9 and KPLU.”

Look at that triumvirate!  Storytelling, particularly in journalism has been defined by the primary forms of media. Television, print and radio have existed in their separate silos and have developed their own lore on how to create good stories. These paradigms have persisted into our new age. We watch online television, read online newspapers and listen to online radio.

Now these forms have merged into one “online” media. This requires a new multisensory, variegated depth form of story telling.

The multisensory aspect is obvious. People can encounter the story in whatever way they are most comfortable, and in whatever way they wish to be engaged.  Previously these forms have been available only through separate outlets. Now these outlets can be unified and present an opportunity for a new synergistic gestalt form. These senses can be engaged as a good boxer combines punches and blocks. If one doesn’t get you, the next one will.

The audience can also go as deep as they want into the story. They can encounter the story at a glance,  go in-depth with the sources or explore alternate accounts.

In additon we have the ability to create methods of interactive engagement. Each story can become its own game.  In such a game the audience could literally climb the hierarchies of power as such constructs can be replicated in a virtual environment and encountered viscerally.  To say that the possibilities are endless is not hyperbole. 

The story is no longer about the story. It’s about carrying the essence of the story to the heart and the mind of the audience.

It’s hard for us to recognize this new tool.

Take it.

Go play.

Have fun.