Narrative communication

Narrative communication is a way of communicating through telling stories. The stories are written or told and are named narratives. Most often, narratives are used to recount a story or in other cases to express an opinion or give information to circumscribe a situation like e.g. past events from the perspective of the storyteller. This use of narrative communication may be more effective than enumerating facts and statistics because it provides an experience people can understand and share. Narrative communication is one way, a speaker can address an audience to make what they're saying more appealing. Narratives can be defined as a symbolic representations of cohesive and coherent events with an identifiable structure, which are bounded in space and time and contain implicit or explicit messages about the topics being addressed.[1]

The theory of narrative communication was developed by Walter Fischer. Narrative communication is an account of events over a passage of time shared to one or many listeners. The time it takes to tell these narratives can vary. As per Kellas, “People build and communicate their relationships, cultures, and identities, in part through the stories they tell” (Baxter, 241). One may ask, why not call it “story telling theory”, instead of narrative theory? Most communication scholars view this as the story being retold in a micro fashion which does not have extensive details. While the term 'narrative' encompasses a macro aspect than just story telling. For example, a story is generally describing or recounting a noteworthy event in someone's life, whereas a narrative for example is not just the event but could describe multiple events to a whole sequence of someone in more detail than just telling one single story about the person. There are two types of narratives that create the biggest impact in our lives. First there is personal narrative, second there are professional narratives.

At a young age most people were taught to process and explain information by using narratives. They often used this theory to explain the events that have occurred throughout their day. This has allowed for peers to understand others lives through relationships, characters, and the retelling of outcomes from past decisions.[2] with the innovation of technology it has made the usage of storytelling through social media easier when trying to communicate a certain objective.[3]

This concept explains that most of the narratives we use come from our personal experiences. When a friend or family member tells us about their day, and what has gone wrong to what is good, they are telling us how they want us to see them. History shows us that all cultures use some kind of narrative to form stories and dances to tell about their tribes and cultures. Same as family stories that are passed down from generation to generation. Those that are the recipients of these narratives experience transportation which is when they converge with the story by decreased their level of self-awareness while giving full attention to the narrative. They start to understand the narrative as more connected to their own lives, which leads them to focus more on the events that have occurred in the story they are being told.[1] Narratives are also used in conflicts, they are used to make the arguments more personal and sympathetic so that the experiences relates easier with the other person.[4]

This facet of narrative states that professionalism at the work place provides many outlets to produce narratives that express who we are (Alder & Rodmen, 2009 ). In the professional world we are exposed to many different cultures that shape how we share are narratives. This includes higher education and any organization we belong to. The usage of narratives can also be used as a business strategy to gain relationships, understanding cause and affect outcomes, and examination of character. Narrative communication is also being used for physician and patient analysis medical decision making.[5]

• Interpersonal communication
• Narrative paradigm
• Problematic integration theory

• Knobloch, L. K. (2008) Engaging Theories in Interpersonal Communication Multiple Perspectives. ( Leslie. A. Baxer, & Dawn O. Braithwaite Ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
• Griffin, E. (2010). Communication a first look at communication theory. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
• Alder, R, & Rodmen G.(2009) Understanding Human Communication. Oxford, NY: Oxford
• Shen L. & Seung S. (2018) On Measures of Message Elaboration in Narrative Communication, Communication Quarterly, 66:1, 79–95, DOI:10.1080/15358593.2014.925960
• Bradbury J. & Guadagno R (2021) Enhanced data narratives, Journal of Management Analytics, 8:2, 171–194, DOI: 10.1080/23270012.2021.1886883
• Weber P. & Grauer Y (2019) The Effectiveness of Social Media Storytelling in Strategic Innovation Communication: Narrative Form Matters, International Journal of Strategic Communication, 13:2, 152–166, DOI: 10.1080/1553118X.2019.1589457
• Clair R., et al., (2014) Narrative theory and Criticism: An Overview Toward Clusters and Empathy, Review of Communication, 14:1, 1–18, DOI: 10.1080/15358593.2014.925960
• Ellis D. (2014) Narrative as deliberative argument, Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict, 7:1, 95–108, DOI:10.1080/17467586.2014.915337