5 ways to know if you are an innovative storyteller

Emerging technologies and digital media tools are transforming how storytellers and media content consumers interact.

More than ever before, there are more technological tools and formats available to storytellers to present their content, but it takes being an innovative storyteller to identify what works and how to apply them.

How do you know you’re an innovative storyteller? Here are five ways to know.

1. Evoke Emotions in Every Topic

Getting people to pay attention to a story can be difficult, especially if the topic in question is considered boring and not of interest to your targeted audience. If you can evoke emotions and ensure people pay rapt attention to your piece enough to want to speak about it, that’s the first pointer you need to apply for the residential course.

2. Can Capture Subject in an Authentic Way

It’s easy to string up big words to sound intelligent, but it’s more challenging to communicate authentically. It isn’t easy to sound like you are taking your reader through a journey you’ve managed to convince them that is essential to their daily lives and important enough for them to give their time.

3. Empathetic and a Good Listener

To evoke emotions, you have to be empathetic – the ability to share someone else’s feelings. You can effectively tell a story if you have this ability and are a good listener.

4. You can use digital and multimedia tools to tell stories. 

The rapidly changing media world requires innovative storytellers to upskill and master digital and multimedia skills to source and tell stories that will engage their audience.

Mastering more storytelling formats has become important for storytellers who want to function in the new age of media. As an innovative storyteller, you must be able to explain stories better, using visuals, data and multimedia tools.

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5. Learning and Relearning:

Emerging technologies are not static; they are constantly evolving with new updates. In the early 2000s, storytellers had the web and a few social media platforms like MySpace, Hi5 and Yahoo Groups to interact and share their stories. In the last 10 years, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp have become the leading social media platforms for reaching media audiences, a confirmation that there will continue to be a shift in the way people across the world prefer to consume their content. An innovative storyteller must also move with the tide.

To equip storytellers and journalists with skills that guarantee success in their works, Nigeria’s leading telecom company, MTN Nigeria, has launched the Media Innovation Programme in partnership with the School of Media and Communication, Pan-Atlantic University in Lagos.

The six-week certificate fellowship programme is searching for innovative storytellers and media leaders to equip with new skills needed to function in the rapidly changing media world in a way that guarantees career and financial success.

Registration closes on Thursday May 5, 2022. Interested persons can apply here