See a photo of Amy Zalman, her bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, Part 2, and Part 3.
Q&A with Amy Zalman, Question 4:
Q: To what extent do you think “storytelling” has become an overused buzzword? Do you find yourself annoyed when things are labeled as “storytelling” that really are not storytelling?
A: For me the culprit word is “narrative” and the arena where its use is
most frequently annoying is in the news. Search for “narrative” on any given day on the Google news page, and you will get all kinds of results in which the word narrative is used to mean “claim” or “argument” or simply “position.”
I think that over time, this overuse may clear up, as communications researchers become clearer about what narrative means in the context of media analysis and how it differs from concepts such a framing, agenda setting and other similar terms.
[Editor’s note]: Since Amy’s response to this question is a short one, I’m taking the liberty of citing a serendipitous blog post from the folks at onethousandandone that talks about a similar issue. The post, titled Is Storytelling the new black?, exhorts:
For GAWD’s sake stop calling everything that moves a story! Just calling something a story doesn’t make it a story. We were working with a client who kept talking about their retail story. When asked to explain further they promptly launched into their retail strategy. So it wasn’t a story it was their strategy. It’s still OK to have a strategy (in fact it’s highly recommended) and even better is to call it a strategy. You can then have a range of stories that help people understand and connect with your strategy.