December 2022 Update from IRIS

Closing the Book on 2022

Webb Telescope: the Pillars of Creation. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale, Alyssa Pagan.

And so 2022 comes to a close. Another year has brought a profound reordering of the realities we thought we knew. The narrative of the 12-month calendar suggests we look back; create a listing; a consideration of what has happened; a compilation of events and insights over the course of an improbable and even impossible time. Our media fill up with other people’s lists of what has happened, what should be seen, watched, studied, celebrated and what should be moved on from. Endless wars, violence and the continuing repression of people and ideas has coupled with rivers from the skies, eruptions from the earth, pandemics, fires, dead zones, and stalling ocean currents. This list also includes extraordinary advances and things to celebrate, large and small: works of art; new technologies; acts of courage, imagination and generosity.

To be human is to live in paradox, and along with the bloodshed, cruelty and destruction humans perpetrate and endure, humans have also built a machine that can look back through time to see the early beginnings of the universe: the James Webb Telescope. The resulting democratization of images of stars forming and galaxies merging is astonishing, ushering in a new age of awareness about what the universe is made of—how it functions—and reminding us of how utterly unique this planet is. It is the only laboratory of organic life that we have found. The Pillars of Creation, as viewed with this new technology, is truly a story that inspires awe, and it is just the beginning of our deeper understanding of star formation. This is a story that can help propel a shift in the actions of people alive now for those who will be alive generations from now.

Narratives surround us. Once you start to see the world through a narrative filter, you can’t unsee it. So much of narrative strategy work is making visible what has been rendered invisible. Like the infrared spectrum the Webb telescope can “see” and humans cannot, revealing the workings of the cosmos in unimagined detail, a narrative lens reveals patterns and power previously unseen. It asks who benefits and who suffers from a particular narrative, story or belief system. It platforms unspoken histories and deliberately erased perspectives. It reveals the layers of manipulation and lies that are woven through narratives and damage our social fabric. It can transform realities.

Flipping the script, countering the stereotype, power-mapping, shifting social norms—these are just some of the tactics, approaches and goals. All of this is predicated on understanding how narrative structures and stories hold and convey meaning, which in turn has the power to (re)structure the conditions of one’s life and one’s community’s reality. Orwell’s famous line from the novel 1984 has the power of narrative in mind: “Who controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” It is at the intersection of conviction and action that IRIS aims to apply a narrative lens in developing story-based remedies to alleviate damage and promote repair for the future. We close 2022 with a look at some of our recent work, and a wish for all of our colleagues, partners and friends to thrive into the new year.

— Cara Mertes, Founding Director of IRIS

Exploring the World of Narrative in Latin America and the Caribbean

Image by Studio Zec.

During the latter half of 2022, IRIS Latin America Lead Graciela Selaimen and IRIS Researcher Carol Misorelli have closely studied the ecosystem of storytelling and narrative change in Latin America and Caribbean in partnership with the Open Society Foundations (OSF). The exploratory research—in which 33 OSF partners working across journalism, content production, strategy, training and other narrative-related fields participated—collected quantitative and qualitative data to build an overview of the capacities, abilities, lessons, gaps and challenges to the field in the region.

Using a participatory approach based on these partners deeply influencing the design & trajectory of the work, OSF and IRIS wanted to drive a process of communal reflection. Participants offered their insights on the young field as it grows and shared insights about how to connect institutions and practitioners, ways they’d like to share knowledge and expertise, and strategic areas for investment and development.

It has been exciting to see that nearly ¾ of the organizations aim to expand their work on narrative change and storytelling in 2023. We also identified an overwhelming willingness among participants to work on collective long term strategies, commitment to bring underrepresented voices to the forefront, and count with more investments for research and distribution strategies. We’ve shared these and other initial findings with participants to include their feedback in the final report, set for release in early 2023.

An IRIS Partnership Update

As we look back on 2022 and onward to 2023, we are excited to highlight new partnerships with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation working in sub-Saharan Africa, Open Society-U.S., working to connect US efforts internationally, and an expanded development phase in the US and internationally with founding donor-partner the Skoll Foundation.

Welcome, Ade!

​​We’re so pleased to welcome Adeola Oyelabi to the IRIS team. Ade joined IRIS as Operations Manager last month. Ade is a diligent administrative and operations professional with ten years of experience in the non-profit sector, including in public media and in academia. They are committed to supporting the elevation of marginalized voices with the goal of making a difference in both transformational and practical ways. Read more about Ade’s past experiences here.

Global Philanthropy Media Hits

We are excited to share two articles from the world of global philanthropy. Narrative Lead Brett Davidson published a guest piece in Communications Network’s INSIGHTS blog investigating how foundations and nonprofits can support culture change in a divided media landscape. Brett looks at a variety of approaches and reminds us all that focusing on the audience is a key factor for success.

Inside Philanthropy’s Martha Ramirez (@mmarthasramirez) published a profile of our #SaferStorytellers report findings and microsite featuring researcher Peter Noorlander and IRIS’ Cara Mertes. We’re grateful to Martha and Inside Philanthropy for bringing always-needed attention to safety and security threats against—and the resources to support and protect—storytellers including journalists, documentary filmmakers, and other activists using storytelling to change our world.