‘Just because it isn’t happening here, doesn’t mean it isn’t happening’: narrative, fictionality and reflexivity in humanitarian rhetoric

Beyond influence: Contextualization and optimization for new narrative techniques and story-formats. Perspective paper

“…For instance, Walter et al (2018) investigated the persuasive power of storytelling in attitude shifts toward the transgender population, undocumented immigrants, as well as countering islamophobia. Similarly, Iversen (2019) reflected on the utilization of fiction in storytelling for social issues through two NGO campaigns delivered as video stories about the refugee children and their struggle to survive the war and consequences of the war. While the first study explored the persuasive power of stories, the second one engaged a narrative through a mix of fiction and non-fiction to raise awareness of the needs refugee children have who live in disadvantaged positions.…”

“…The TST optimization creates a combination of both fiction and non-fiction to make the storytelling efficient and effective. Such combination has been mentioned in literature as a rhetorical anomaly that can occur by coincidence or design, allowing an artifact to be read both as fictional and non-fictional text (Nielsen, 2010;Jacobsen, 2015;Iversen, 2019). This concept has been explored by Iversen (2019) who referred to metanoic reflexivity in textual narratives.…”

“…Such combination has been mentioned in literature as a rhetorical anomaly that can occur by coincidence or design, allowing an artifact to be read both as fictional and non-fictional text (Nielsen, 2010;Jacobsen, 2015;Iversen, 2019). This concept has been explored by Iversen (2019) who referred to metanoic reflexivity in textual narratives. However, in terms of TST, the merge of non-fiction and fiction in audio narratives is set by design where non-fiction comes through the themes built in the story (see Petrovic et al, 2022) while fiction comes through the narrative itself.…”

“…However, in terms of TST, the merge of non-fiction and fiction in audio narratives is set by design where non-fiction comes through the themes built in the story (see Petrovic et al, 2022) while fiction comes through the narrative itself. In this sense, the fictionality heightens the reflexivity (Walsh, 2007;Chouliaraki, 2011;Iversen, 2019) while the non-fiction grounds the listener into the proximity of the protagonist to consistently support identification and engagement. Similarly to Iversen's concept of metanoic reflexivity, the crucial effect of TST also lies in the audience's limited interest if something is fictional or not once the narration begins.…”

“…And yet, once the narration is over, the participants seem to be more concerned with the protagonists' experiences and feelings expressed in the story than the degree of reality. Interestingly, as noted by Iversen (2019), distinguishing fictional and nonfictional narratives is rarely a conscious activity. In fact, even when the researcher noted that the story just played was fictional, and told of how the story was created, the participants chose to disregard this and simply continued to compare their own experiences as caregivers and compassionately comment on the potential future of the fictional protagonist-this suggests a potent sign of identification.…”