Economic Narrative Assessment Tool

You indicated that the person or people experiencing the economic inequality you're talking about do not appear in your story.

You indicated that people are likely to feel loathing for those impacted in your story.

You indicated that people are likely to feel fear for those impacted in your story.

You indicated that people are likely to feel no particular emotion for those impacted in your story.

You indicated that people are likely to feel pity for those impacted in your story.

You indicated that people are likely to feel sympathy or empathy for those impacted in your story.

Recommendations:

Consider making them a character in your story telling. Research shows that humanizing the people experiencing inequality is an important precursor to folks supporting policies or programs aimed at fixing the inequality.

Disgust and loathing are common emotions elicited in TV and movies by portrayals of people experiencing poverty. These emotions make it easy for people to "other" those experiencing injustice and therefore to feel like they don't deserve to be helped. Consider ways to avoid these portrayals.

People experiencing economic distress are often cast as aggressors, for instance in crime dramas. Fear makes people turn away from the problems that can be solved. Consider redirecting away from these feelings of fear.

While neutral portrayals of people experiencing economic injustice may seem objective or fair, leaving the story too dry makes it easy for people to abstract the problem away from one they should care about. Showing the humanity of those impacted by your story is a powerful way to get people to pay attention to the policies and programs you care about.

Pity is a natural reaction for people seeing misfortune and a very common way that people experiencing economic injustice are portrayed. However, pity as a dominant emotional reaction often leads people to consider only individual charity as a solution and not the broader, systemic interventions that could change this situation for lots of people.

Congratulations. Humanizing people experiencing economic injustice and portraying them in a way that engenders sympathy is an important element in moving people to actively support change. Keep doing this.

You indicated that people are likely to conclude that the protagonist's situation is the result of their own character flaws.

You indicated that in your story poor individual choices explain the protagonist's situation.

You indicated that fate dictated the protagonist's situation in your story.

You indicated that your story does not give an explanation for how the protagonist's situation came to be.

You indicated that bad luck or unfortunate circumstances led to the protagonist's situation in your story.

You indicated that in your story the protagonist was impacted by systemic disadvantages.

Recommendations:

Portraying economic failure as the result of individual flaws feeds into narratives in which the rest of society has no responsibility for the economic injustices experienced by others. Consider instead highlighting the context that these failures are occurring in and how they could be changed.

While individual choices do contribute to economic outcomes this emphasis takes away the focus from the broader societal contexts that contribute to injustice and that people can do something about. Consider shifting the focus to this broader context.

Stories that rest on inevitability or fate leave little room for change. Consider highlighting the societal factors that contributed to the economic situation your protagonists find themselves in.

If your story doesn't suggest the contextual factors that contributed to the situation you're showing, then some audiences will assume that the individual protagonist is to blame. This will make it hard to move those audiences to support the programs and policies you want to advance. Consider showing this context in your story.

Showing how bad luck contributed to the situation your protagonists are in is helpful in humanizing them. To go one step further, consider showing how the inequities in our economic and social systems made that bad luck more likely for some than others. This broadens the specific problem you are showing into one that viewers can help address.

Nice work showing how broad issues lead to the kind of situation that your story depicts. This is important in setting up a future story in which these issues are addressed.

You indicated that in your story the economic injustice you portray is unchangeable.

You indicated that the protagonists themselves are the ones shown to have the power to alter their own situation.

You indicated that in your story an act of charity or assistance could help the protagonists.

You indicated that your story doesn't make clear how a future change could be made possible.

You indicated that politicians and institutions—elements of the system—could create change.

You indicated that the community, including the viewer, could help create a change.

Recommendations:

A story without the possibility of a future in which injustice is alleviated will leave the audience without a reason to care about the injustice being portrayed. Consider adding a path to a better future in your story.

Leaving change up to the individuals experiencing economic injustice absolves the viewer of further involvement. Consider describing a role for others in the community in bringing about the change you seek.

Suggesting acts of charity as a path to a better future limits the potential reach of that change. Consider adding a future story that involves broader, systemic change.

Suggesting a change but without describing a possible path to achieving that change risks audiences assuming that they have no role in bringing about this future. Consider spelling out a theory of change in which it's made clear who has the power to make this happen.

Many audiences will be skeptical of the ability of institutions and systems to change on their own. They may also be disinclined to care about such change if they are led to believe it is out of their hands. Consider describing a way in which communities can help bring about this future.

Well done. By offering viewers agency in bringing about the future you seek, you have a chance at gaining their active support in your efforts.

In addition, you should consider working your audience more directly into your story. They don't necessarily have to be a character in the story. They could appear as a "we" in the narration. Your aim is to turn the audience from passive observers of someone else's injustice to active participants in a narrative that starts from this injustice but carries through to a future in which we have all worked to alleviate this injustice.