Stories from PUBLIC HEALTH PRACTITIONERS
Stories fuel infodemics. By understanding how emotive storytelling is successful in reaching audiences and causing narratives to go viral, infodemic managers can reverse engineer the same approach to tell their own stories about working in the trenches, managing the infodemic in the time of COVID-19 and being more effective in their jobs.
Infodemics consist of narratives that shape and shift over time. Understanding how stories are constructed and what emotional and cognitive shortcuts they rely on to spread quickly are skills every storyteller knows. These are skills that are also invaluable for infodemic managers to tell their own stories of how they experienced the pandemic and accompanying infodemic personally and professionally. Through building these storytelling skills, infodemic managers can become more effective communicators and explain to others what infodemic management looks like in practice, and the types of strategies that worked (and didn’t work).
WHO in partnership with The Story Collider want to build skills for public health practitioners to promote science and health through the craft of personal storytelling.
Online Storytelling event #3
On 26 January 2023, 3 Spanish speaking Infodemic Managers will tell their own personal experiences about managing the Infodemic during the time of COVID-19.
For more information and to register, click HERE
Online Storytelling event #2
This event has passed, however the recording can be viewed here:
On 15 December 2022, 4 French speaking Infodemic Managers told their own personal experiences about managing the Infodemic during the time of COVID-19.
For more information, click HERE
ONLINE STORYTELLING EVENT #1
This event has passed, however the recording can be viewed here:
The infodemic has affected health professionals personally and professionally and changed the way health systems have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 2 November 2022, we will showcase three Infodemic Managers to tell their own personal experiences about managing the Infodemic during the time of COVID-19.
This event is free and is brought to you in partnership with The World Health Organization (WHO) to promote science and health through more effective storytelling.
HOSTED BY:
Lily Be and Kent Whipple
JOIN US FOR OUR WEBINAR
This event has passed, however recordings can be viewed here:
French https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExSzV-XMdGg
Spanish https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFAzfjU1wwg
English https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNU8eySjtt0&t=87s
This webinar is part of an announcement of an upcoming training and evaluation project to build capacity among infodemic managers to tell effective stories from the field. For anyone who wishes to learn more about the craft of science storytelling, there is perhaps no more powerful tool than narrative to engage audiences on an emotional and personal level. Research shows us that stories are more understandable, more believable, and more memorable than many other forms of communication (Dahlstrom & Ho, 2012). Experience tells us that stories can make an indelible mark on listeners and tellers alike. On 26 July 2022 at 14:00 Geneva Switzerland time (10:00 EDT-Washington, DC), Dr. Maryam Zaringhalam a senior producer with The Story Collider, will lead an introductory webinar on the fundamentals of science storytelling. Other guest speakers include Tina Purnett of WHO and Claire Wardle of Brown University School of Public Health. The webinar will take place in English, French and Spanish.
Click HERE to register in advance for this webinar
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
If the webinar is full or you prefer to stream via YouTube (streaming available in English only): Click HERE
Learning opportunity: Effective storytelling to communicate about infodemics, their impact and how to contribute to infodemic management practice: APPLY HERE
Deadline for application: 8 August 2022 at 23:59 Geneva Switzerland time
BACKGROUND
Through building storytelling skills, infodemic managers can become more effective communicators and explain to others the power of narratives that can mislead and cause harm online, talk about their infodemic management work and how stories can be used as a force for promoting public health. This is a free training for successful applicants who have been working in and responding to health misinformation, worked in the COVID-19 pandemic, and understand how information informs people’s personal health decisions. Successful applicants will be invited to the workshop and encouraged to share and record their stories of how health misinformation and information overload have affected their lives either professionally or personally during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their stories will be featured in a community storytelling project of the WHO infodemic manager community.
PURPOSE
WHO in partnership with The Story Collider want to build these skills for public health practitioners to promote science and health through more effective storytelling.
WHY YOU SHOULD APPLY
The ability to tell a story effectively is a useful craft for anyone working in evidence-based public health where practitioners balance data and numbers with connecting on an emotional level with their audience. Storytelling skills are useful for advocacy, relationship building and becoming a more persuasive health and science communicator. By joining this storytelling workshop, successful applicants who work in health misinformation will more vividly and effectively describe their lived experiences and tell effective stories of how infodemics affected individuals, communities and health systems during COVID-19 pandemic.
Participation in the workshops is free to participants.
Workshops will be held in language-specific tracks for English, Spanish and French. Potential participants apply for a specific language track, for which they must have at least a working proficiency in to be able to tell a story in this language.
A limited number of applicants will be selected based on eligibility criteria.
Participation in the workshop is subject to signing a media release, so that participants can be part of the lived experience storytelling project.
TIME COMMITMENT
6-hours of dedicated class time spread over 2 days, plus a nominal amount of asynchronous work.
Proposed session dates:
English session 1: Tuesday 16 August and Thursday 18 August 2022, 15:00 - 18:00 Geneva Switzerland time
English session 2: Tuesday 23 August and Thursday 25 August 2022, 9:00 - 12:00 Geneva Switzerland time
French session: Tuesday 6 September and Thursday 8 September, 15:00 - 18:00 Geneva Switzerland time
Spanish session: Tuesday 13 September and Thursday 15 September, 17:00 - 20:00 Geneva Switzerland time
WHO CAN APPLY
WHO invites applications from experienced professionals from the fields of:
Social and behaviour change communication
Academia and research
Healthcare sector
Public Health
Infodemic management
Health service design and delivery
Criteria for eligibility:
Have demonstrated experience in communicating effectively about science or health topics or addressing health misinformation
Have work experience in COVID-19 response
HOW TO APPLY
Interested applicants should fill out the application form.
Applications should be submitted by 8 August 2022 at 23:59 Geneva Switzerland time.
Contact for questions: workshops@storycollider.org