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Questions to Ask Before Posting/ Sharing a Missions Story
Looking to share a story from your short-term mission trip, or long-term mission work? Here are a few questions you might want to ask yourself before posting or speaking. Whom do I help by telling this story? (Is the purpose of this story or photo to make me look good, or does it benefit others?) Whose perspective is highlighted? (Am I the center of the story, or is someone else’s perspective highlighted?) Am I correcting stereotypes and myths or contributing to them? Should I be telling this story or should someone else? (Can the person featured in the story tell their own story?) Am I reducing people to their problems,…
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Digging Deeper: Narrative Identity Theory
In my previous post I shared a little about how stories can have impact in the real world. Today I want to go a little deeper into that idea. While working on a paper for one of my seminary classes, I was introduced to something called narrative identity theory. This theory says that stories are “among the most important means by which people articulate and clarify their sense of [the world].”i We connect events together to form stories to help our lives make sense, stringing memories together in the way that a novelist arranges chapters.ii On the individual level, narrative identity theory is the identity we construct through the stories…
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Do the Stories we Tell Actually Matter?
Last week I talked about a few of the differences between ethical and unethical storytelling. But does how we tell stories, and the kinds of stories we tell actually matter? Can the images and words we use actually cause harm or cultivate good? Yes, they can! The stories we tell have real impact in the real world. Maybe you’ve encountered the impact of stories, perhaps without even realizing it. For example, have you ever heard stories about someone before you met them? Maybe someone new is moving into your neighborhood, or joining your class at school, or starting at your workplace. Perhaps you’ve only heard negative things about this person:…
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What is Ethical Storytelling?
I believe my calling, or a big part of it anyway, is to tell ethical missions stories, or ethical stories about cross-cultural work. But what does that mean? The truth is I’m still learning. But here’s what I know right now. Ethical stories preserve the dignity of their subjects. These stories aim to help readers and viewers better understand complex issues, rather than oversimplifying problems. Ethical stories help people see the humanity in others. They allow subjects to speak for themselves. They don’t further stereotypes, but dismantle them instead. They are diverse. Ethical stories don’t show people as utterly helpless, needing rescue from those in a “wealthy” country. Rather, they…
