Life is a Story

The other day I came across one of my graduate application essays written in 2007. The thing that caught my eye was a quote I wrote that expresses a term that I have been hearing and seeing this year: Storytelling.

Here is an excerpt from the essay:

GRADUATE ADMISSIONS ESSAY

Ellie A. Parvin

Life is a story. In fact, storytelling is historically one of the most powerful of human capabilities. How we recount a story, whether it is our story or someone else’s, can make a positive or negative impact or no impact at all.  – Ellie Parvin

When was the last time you picked up your local paper and felt what you were holding in your hand was an honest to goodness piece of Journalism? Sure, the articles we read today are entertaining, interesting and informative. However, are writers today telling these stories with balance, objectivity, honesty, compassion and most important ethics?

These qualities are not only taught to communications students but are key traits that have shaped my life.

My goal is to share, educate and reinforce these guidelines with future communication students in the early stage of their curriculum. My dream is to further develop an “ethics in mass communications” course for future students to measure and balance each situation more clearly than today we see today.

Getting a Master Degree from ***University Name Here*** is a key in accomplishing my goals and dreams. I believe mingling education with life experience continues to provide me with tools for success.

As not to bore you lets cut to the end shall we…

The tools I have gathered in different industries in my career are valuable and can be applied to almost any company. However, implementing balance, objectivity, honesty, compassion and most important ethics are valuable attributes that endure. They are not something that you get credit for in collage or get promoted for in competitive environments,

In humanity’s infancy, all families, tribes and societies need resolute storytellers to constantly encourage, inspire and guide their people in a positive moral manner! I hope to continue this tradition in our modern day society not only for myself, but for the future of communications in the mass media.

Storytelling:  What’s New?

It’s so interesting that new ideas and new trends are often just re-vamped ways people did things historically.

DIGITAL STORYTELLING

The reality of what makes the trend of storytelling shiny and new is that found in the utilization of a fantastic new medium: Technology!

In order to move forward with ethics in storytelling and take advantage of “new trends”, sometimes it’s important that we understand the origin of rhetoric.

Origins of Storytelling

Since I study communications (and obviously obsessed with it), I can’t help but think about the history of communications and storytelling. I recognize similar patterns of how society receives and accepts information (or news) from sources that we as a society are accustomed to (leaders, parents, news, mentors, authority figures, etc). It helps to think of story telling as a form of sharing and passing on information. Sometimes it has value (or not), sometimes it’s just for entertainment and sometimes it’s presented as both.

For example, many centuries ago (B.C. in fact) before the written word, the general public relied on orators to inform them and educate them on news via rhetoric. These orators/storytellers were highly respected and regarded. You better believe they never uttered the words, “I am not good at remembering names.” The orators during this time surely could influence and be influenced by others; a pattern that started way back then that has continued through the centuries and appears to be in effect in the present.

Finally, many psychologists and historians consider storytelling is one of the things that define and bind our humanity. Humans are possibly the only animals that create and tell stories.

Now all you need to do is learn how to tell your story  (featured in next week’s blog post)!

For more information Read:

The Science of Storytelling:   Why Telling a Story is the Most Powerful Way to Activate Our Brains by Leo Widrich

http://lifehacker.com/5965703/the-science-of-storytelling-why-telling-a-story-is-the-most-powerful-way-to-activate-our-brains

Watch:

The Whiteboard History of Story Telling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6E8jpFasR0