Besides making a point about the state of healthcare in the US today, my friends and I created the video above as a form of “digital storytelling”, using new tools to share an age-old content delivery system. Do you think facts and figures have worked better?

I’ve been hearing a lot more about storytelling these days. For example, in a recent NPR segment about storytelling at the Edinburgh festival, an audience member said in her Scottish burr, “We’ve been so clever about computers and pushed entertainment as far as we can, we’re going back to the original art form”.

This might help explain the increased buzz around great user-generated events like the Moth StorySlam and Mortified and radio shows like This American Life and now the Moth Radio Hour. There is something old-fashioned, comforting and even primal about storytelling.

While this supposedly new-found interest in storytelling coincides with increased interest in digital social media, I don't see it necessarily as a denunciation of technology.

In fact, as social media tools get even more user-friendly and widely adopted, there are new ways to share stories. If anything, this means we need to focus even more on creating compelling content. Tim Wu of the Zero Divide Foundation asserts that focusing on tools without content is like a reverse of that "Field of Dreams" adage: "If you build JUST that, they WON'T come." For example, in making our video, I used affordable consumer electronics to make the point that the video was not about having the best equipment but having the right kind of storytelling.

There's no denying that what draws people in is storytelling and metaphor. As researchers like George Lakoff and Drew Westen have shown, our brains are hard-wired for metaphors and their emotional content. Both researchers have written extensively on how progressives need to learn to use metaphor more effectively in our advocacy and campaigns rather than relying on "facts and figures" as Lakoff puts it. Westen points out in his book The Political Brain: the Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation that "Political persuasion is about networks and narratives." As part of my work, I've started facilitating workshops to help nonprofits and community groups use their networks get to the heart of their narratives and explore new metaphors to express this.

But using the right kind of narrative is what we're all still figuring out. I've been wondering more and more if testimonials are the 21st century's "facts and figures". Opponents often dismiss cases of individuals facing injustice as one-offs or unfortunate exceptions to the rule that don't prove systemic problems. This thinking shaped our video "Dying to Get In" and why we chose a metaphorical "USA Healthcare System" to express the impossible situation faced by many Americans. While our video has a story's requisite beginning, middle and end, it doesn't necessarily have a central protagonist. I hoped that this would illustrate a trend rather than an individual situation. In this way, "digital storytelling" permitted us to explore new modes of narrative to connect with and persuade the public.

What impact will the video have? Hard to say. Even though the jury is still out on healthcare reform, I hope the video spurs further conversation and more storytelling. With that in mind, you can benefit from the wonders of social media by leaving your comments here or on YouTube. Let's keep this conversation going...