Storytelling in science is an art that one MUST learn in the field of research. Why, you may wonder? Take an example of this analogy.
In this era of digital connectedness, researchers get flooded by scrolls of information, get lost in PowerPoint slides, statistics, and data plots. What we look for among all the items competing for our attention as we scroll through our newsfeeds, online journal content, academic social networks and Google search results is the stuff that is relevant to us. Only a handful of content that masters the art of scientific storytelling, by weaving bits and pieces of information into an engaging storyline, manages to arouse our imagination and leave an impression in our minds. As Robert McKee (a famous screenwriting coach) puts it: “Stories are how we remember, we tend to forget lists and bullet points.”
Storytelling in research is a successful strategy for communicating innovation and learning the art of storytelling in science is sure to pave your way to success. By creating powerful narratives one can enable readers to comprehend innovations and believe in their effectiveness. Digital storytelling in science is an emerging narrative method for communicating research by combining multiple modes of expression available in online platforms, e.g., video, audio, illustration, and text. The flexibility to mix-and-match artistic media with interactive tools in social media platforms has great potential to generate interest in a broad range of audience. No wonder then, storytelling in science and research through online platforms has become essential in a modern scientist’s toolkit for outreach. Storytelling in research can benefit you in a number of ways:
- Persuades your readers to go along the storyline and motivates them to read your research work further.
- Enables you to build a community, make new connections, and reach a broader audience.
- Helps you share your research in new, fun, and engaging ways that help you in staying “top of the mind” with your audience.
Thus, as a researcher, it is imperative to strategize how to utilize social media storytelling to communicate your innovations effectively. Storytelling in research can help make complex, technical topics more understandable and interesting for readers, allowing it to stand out among the avalanche of data available online. By combining rationality and a little creativity, one can design a story plot. You not only weave a lot of information into the telling but also arouse a reader’s curiosity and imagination. This demands vivid insight into your research and a mastery of the art of storytelling in science so that you are able to present ideas in a way that captivates the audience.
Here is a framework for improving any strategic research communication within which you can develop your own storyline and storytelling in science:
- Goal – Knowing the desired outcome from your communication can help you set the stage. Do the background work on the story behind your research. Be it storytelling for scientists, researchers, or academics, think how your story fits into the larger scientific narrative and why it matters.
- Audience and platform – As you learn the art of scientific storytelling, it is important to know your audience in order to set objectives. Each social media platform has its unique way of communication, so choose your means of storytelling in research accordingly.
- Message – Figure out the key message or the central idea of the research work that you want to communicate. Craft a logical, persuasive key message before diving into the details of storytelling in science. Else, the readers might wander off before they want to read further!
- Expression – Bring the ideas to life by weaving the facts and details into a string of expression that delivers a new perspective on the world – that’s the art of storytelling in science. Use the power of visuals wherever you can as they are proven to be more effective than vocals/text on academic social networks.
- Relevance – Unite an idea with an emotion to make your research relevant to your reader. We can invest hours of our time in extremely technical content as long as it is relevant to us. Storytelling in research aims for that emotional connection, regardless of how technical your subject may be, to help your message to be received, understood, shared, and remembered. If you are not sure how to do that, consider the narrative you have developed for your research story and consider the reaction you want your audience to have: inspired? Amused? Empowered? Then, rephrase your message.
Everyone who needs to communicate on technical or specific research topics must adhere to the best standards in scientific communication, which include making specialized knowledge simple and accessible while keeping it accurate. You should strive to avoid dramatic storytelling in science and manipulation/distortion of facts to create any false alarm. As you go about mastering the art of storytelling in science, you will be better equipped to create more effective social media content that highlights your research. Such endeavors can harness the imagination and skills of a well-told narrative and attract larger audience… so now that you have the details, go tell that story!
