MAKE THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE

An oldie but a goodie. We take what’s not seen/seeable and bring it to the light.

This is what Greenpeace’s founders did when they took the world to the edge of Alaska, sailing towards a tiny island that was about to be blasted by a nuclear bomb. Through these brave women and men, we got to learn about a part of the world that many of us would never have known existed. Greenpeace continues to make the invisible visible today through the campaigning work of its ships.

REFRAME

Metanarratives are tricky. The more that you struggle against them, the stronger they get. Most of the time, challenging one of these stories directly will only work to reinforce it. Remember, metanarratives entrench themselves through decades of repetition. Argue against them directly, and your audience may respond with defensiveness and even anger. Nobody likes to be told that everything they know is wrong!

So rather than dismantle the old narratives, it’s better to reframe your perspective in a way that already fits in with your audience’s worldview. What does your audience value? Justice? Community? Creativity? A clean and safe future for the next generation? Find a way to connect your issue to the stories and ideas they already believe in, and your campaign stands a much better chance of succeeding.

Want to learn more? See our section on Frames.

CHANGE/DIG INTO THE SETTING

• How do we characterise the world? Broken, hopeful, a battlefield, a community, a machine, scary, inviting
• What scale do we use: abstract, distant, regional, national, local, personal
• Sensory details: Sight, sound, smell, touch.
• Meaning: who lives here; who wants to live here; who’s visible; invisible; memories, history, dreams, ambitions, failures, heartbreak; symbolism of setting: i.e. a ship, a capital building, a statue.