The Restorative Narrative genre can improve media by offering up a more holistic, balanced approach to news coverage. It also has the potential to help people and communities — by showing them what it means to be resilient in the aftermath of a difficult time.
This is one of the main takeaways from the most recent “It’s All Journalism” podcast, which featured ivoh’s work around Restorative Narrative.
In the podcast, ivoh’s Mallary Tenore talked with Michael O’Connell and Nicole Ogrysko about what Restorative Narratives are, why they matter, and the impact they can have.
Here are some highlights from their interview:
“I think people’s appetite for news is changing,” Tenore said. “With that change, come the opportunities to tell the full story — not just telling the stories of what happened, but really looking at what’s possible.” …
Tenore said a growing body of research has shown repeated exposure to negative emotions often expressed in traumatic news stories, people become more stressed, withdrawn and less social. It creates a culture of fear rather than resilience and community.
“But when people experience positive emotions, like those that are often in restorative narratives, they feel more mobilized to be engaged with their communities,” Tenore said. “Positive psychology research shows that resilience is an acquired skill. Our hypothesis is if the media were to tell more stories of resilience and recovery, then maybe they could teach communities what it means to be resilient.”
Click here to listen to the full podcast.
Want to learn more about Restorative Narrative? Join us for our annual media summit this June in the Catskills.