CyberFootprint

We often hear that the press release, essay or a resume needs to tell a story. “Facts are great, but a story is better,” I’ve heard many times during my internship at a PR agency.

Interestingly enough, nobody told me why is a story better than a collection of facts. An article in New York Times only tells us that we have some sort of a natural affinity for the narratives embedded in our brains. Well, NYT.com might not be the best source to look for scientific information after all. So, I plunged into academic discourse only to return to reality many hours later and a tiny bit wiser.

Narrative Paradigm

Most of the consulted literature does not shed light on why humans are susceptible to storytelling, but it offers some explanations on how narratives persuade us. Walter Fisher argues that persuasion happens emotionally, instead of rationally. Narrative is, according to him, the most persuasive means of communication. If the narrator makes the story believable and consistent to the audience, the factual truth does not matter.

There is a problem, though. Coherence (the extent to what the story makes sense) and fidelity (the extent to what the story is compatible with our own previous experience) vary from person to person. Therefore, narratives tend to be ineffective on the large scale and in mass persuasion. Hence the experience of the audience may vary from the one intended by the persuader.

How to get over this problem? The solution exists, but it’s not easy. Some of you may be familiar with social judgment theory. The key is to determine the latitude of acceptance within your target audience and customize the narrative to fit into it.

ELM

Steering away from Fisher’s radical paradigm, we can take a look at elaboration likelihood model that presents more answers to the question “why should the press release tell a story?”

We can all agree that writing a colourful story is like painting a picture. Most pictures are easy to comprehend and do not require too much of thinking. This reduces the message’s processing difficulty, and sends it via the peripheral route to the brain, where it is easily deciphered and comprehended in a way the message constructors want it to be understood.

This is often tricky, just as Fisher’s theory, because PROs cannot accurately predict how the audience will react. That comes back to knowing the segment you are marketing to and researching it properly. Another option is to focus on the niche audience, because smaller groups will act in a more predictable way, so the PROs can steer the audience’s perception with more control over the process.

My own theory

I would like to announce that if I have come up with the following thoughts myself, and if it overlaps with any scientific theory, credit goes to the theorist.

In order to survive and succeed, humans need to harvest a great array of experiences, so they will know how to behave in certain situations. We are storing these experiences for further reference.

For example, even though only few of us have given the first aid, we know how to behave in a situation requiring the first aid.

Stories are essentially someone else’s experience transmitted to the listener / reader. Therefore, due to our natural affinity for stories (stemming from the aforementioned need), we are susceptible to letting our guard of critical thinking down and perceive messages in a way their creators want them to be perceived.

Concluding on a lighter note

So, I am thoroughly exhausted after the gruesome research and a flood of information. If you have read the article all the way to here, well done! You now understand the power and limitations of the stories in your press releases.

One day I decided to play with this theory. I was supposed to send a press release about Impact to two similar groups of journalists. To make matters more interesting, I wrote one factual and one story-like version of the release. I had sent the releases out, and got a more favourable reaction to the narrative version. OK, theory confirmed.

Last word of advice for the PROs: write stories, but don’t stick to them all the time. It depends a lot on who your target audience is, and who the target publication is. Some editors will kill narratives, because it does not look like proper reporting. Others won’t. It all comes back to targeting and doing your homework.

Image credit: fluckduffy and melodi2