List date(s) this work was published or aired.
Mar-12
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
Nearly everyone enjoys a good story. But stories can do far more than entertain. They can inform, educate, inspire, motivate, and persuade. The article examined the function of storytelling in helping shape legislation and public policy, interacting with patients and clients, marketing and obtaining referrals, educating students, mentoring new physical therapists, using social media, and more. In this article, physical therapists told their stories about storytelling.
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
Reports, studies, substantial online research, and other materials were reviewed.
Explain types of human sources used.
Many physical therapists and a number of other experts in storytelling were interviewed.
Results:
The article generated positive feedback from physical therapists.
Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
No corrections or clarifications were necessary.
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
This was a “fun” article to work on, but a challenging one to bring together as a unified whole. We didn’t encounter much confusion or uncertainty among those we interviewed regarding the applicability of storytelling to their activities. On the other hand, assembling the material into roughly equal (length and value of information) chunks — and then bringing those elements together in a single piece — took substantial effort. To help in this unification, we incorporated two additional elements: (1) opening lines from some well-known (and some not so well-known) novels that related to the concept of each section (each, therefore, the beginning of a popular story), and (2) a custom illustration (as one might find in stories) that linked the quote with the subject of that section. Example: In the section of the article dealing with Twitter and social media, we used the opening line from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland dealing with Alice wondering about the value of a book without pictures or conversation. The accompanying illustration displayed Alice and her sister looking in puzzlement at an iPad.