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Using narratives and storytelling to communicate science with nonexpert audiences
Open accessAbstract
Although storytelling often has negative connotations within science, narrative formats of communication should not be disregarded when communicating science to nonexpert audiences. Narratives offer increased comprehension, interest, and engagement. Nonexperts get most of their science information from mass media content, which is itself already biased toward narrative formats. Narratives are also intrinsically persuasive, which offers science communicators tactics for persuading otherwise resistant audiences, although such use also raises ethical considerations. Future intersections of narrative research with ongoing discussions in science communication are introduced.
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“Dahlstrom (2014) emphasizes three key features of stories: (a) Stories depict temporal events, (b) stories are concerned with goal-directed agents, and (c) stories represent causally related sequences.”
From Stories in Action. (2022) · cites this paper as Dahlstrom, 2014
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Metadata
- Authors
- Dahlstrom, M. F.
- Affiliations
- Iowa State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Dahlstrom, Michael F.
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2014-09-15
- Volume
- 111
- Issue
- supplement_4
- Pages
- 13614-13620
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC4183170
- OpenAlex
- W2034648286
- Cited by
- 1,159
- References
- 92
- Citations by year
- 2026: 114 · 2025: 124 · 2024: 128 · 2023: 119 · 2022: 142 · 2021: 134 · 2020: 124 · 2019: 105 · 2018: 93 · 2017: 27 · 2016: 40 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 457.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Communication › Media Influence and Health
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Climate Change Communication and Perception
- Social Sciences › Library and Information Sciences › Academic Publishing and Open Access
- Keywords
- science communication, storytelling, narrative, mass media, persuasion, public engagement with science, scientific literacy, ethics of persuasion
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Mass Media, Persuasive Communication, Science, Information Dissemination, Narration
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