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Storytelling With Data

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Storytelling With Data

Gaining Insights, Developing Strategy and Taking Corporate Communications to a New Level

Springer Gabler,

15 min read
8 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Use data to create compelling narratives to ensure your target audience remembers your message.

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Engaging
  • Inspiring

Recommendation

Raw data itself means little, explains communications industry expert Hans-Wilhelm Eckert. But modern-day oracles know how to interpret data, using it to create powerful narratives that influence human behavior and entire economies. People have been telling stories for millennia, he says; nowadays, they do so with the aid of machines, ushering in complex new opportunities and challenges for storytellers. Gain insights into a range of related topics, such as how to design data visualizations and ways to mitigate bias, while enhancing your understanding of the role Big Data plays in storytelling today.

Summary

Those who tell powerful stories with data are today’s oracles.

When those in power in Ancient Greece needed answers, they consulted Pythia, a high priestess at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. Pythia spoke in poetic mysteries, making interpretation the central focus of any quest for answers. In Greek myths, heroes often only understood the oracle’s words, and themselves, in retrospect. Today, people turn instead to data and those who know how to interpret it, including analysts, brokers and the media. To tell engaging stories with data, take lessons from the Delphic Oracle: Aspire to ask the right questions and to glean insights from the “hero’s journey” that occurs in the space between questioning and understanding.

Data interacts with narratives and systems in the following ways:

  1. Data shapes a strategic narrative – Whether you’re segmenting customers or developing brand stories, data provides context to shape and share stories.
  2. Data visualizations deliver the story – In formats such as data journalism, data-inspired social media campaigns and analyst reports...

About the Author

Hans-Wilhelm Eckert is owner of the consultancy group Momentum Communication and works as a press officer, journalist, consultant, and marketing and investor relations manager.

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