A University at Buffalo professor is doing her part to change how society talks about environmentalism. Alex Simone of WBFO News recently sat down with Helen Wang to discuss her experience co-editing the book “Storytelling to Accelerate Climate Solutions.”
Alex Simone: I'm Alex Simone here with UB Professor Helen Wang, who recently published a book about responsible stewardship of the environment. And Helen, could you tell us a little bit more about just how you landed on this storytelling device?
Helen Wang: Oh. Well, first of all, thank you for having me, Alex. And so, I am a professor of communication. I have been in the field of communication research for over 20 years, and I actually feel very proud to be based at an academic institution that's actually ranked as at the top of our nation's universities in terms of climate action. I've been a so-called expert on entertainment education, and it is sort of a subfield in communication, focusing on how we could really leverage the power of stories, especially those are purposely designed and crafted, and taught through entertainment media for positive social and behavior change.
AS: When you talk about storytelling and entertainment education, are we talking personal anecdotes? Is this fiction short stories?
HW: The bulk of the work in entertainment education has been fictional storytelling, but based on research and theories from different disciplines. And we kind of built around role models, you know, negative role models, positive role models, and more importantly, something called transitional role models, where you can show the contemplation, the barriers, and how do you actually overcome. Through these kinds of creative storytelling, could be a teen drama series, but actually has really evidence based solutions and resources incorporated into the characters and storylines to help people think, ‘Oh, actually, this is not the only way to face these issues.’ And more importantly, there are different ways to actually take actions, or at least to challenge and overcome these issues.
AS: When you're looking at all of these different subtopics within climate change, was there anything that really stuck out to you more than you were expecting on when you started this?
HW: We've agreed on emphasizing human agency and also focusing on positive and actionable stories and how we can really coordinate our efforts across different disciplines and different levels of engagement and different population groups and different communities across the world to kind of make very much a very thoughtful, very, very curated kind of efforts like we have to work together, but also work together smartly with limited resources.
AS: There are so many different topics or, aspects that you're trying to pull together for this. What was a thing you had cut out, maybe, one aspect you wish you could have included?
HW: We didn't, necessarily, have to cut based on what we personally preferred or not, but we just thought, the ultimate goal is to build this community, to share what's working. we have tried our best to honor the contributor's style. For example, we had a chapter of, you know, comedians, and they wanted to write jokes and references. It was very unusual in terms of editing. But we tried our best to honor their style of communication because, ultimately, we wanted that to be available to us, to be featured as an example in terms of how you can go about and do this.
AS: Having done all of this now and gotten the book published, is this something that you think could be a tactic that works You know, in the education system as a whole?
HW: Oh, absolutely. The nature of entertainment education is sort of informal learning. You're learning about some things through a very engaging, entertaining narrative experience. I've heard already from many readers and professionals in my network talking about how they could really use this as a textbook in their graduate level course or use that for their workshop. And I can definitely see instructors in the classroom, not just limited to higher education, to use the content from this book for their purposes with their own groups and communities.
“Storytelling to Accelerate Climate Solutions” is an open-access book, and can be found by searching the title online.
