March 2004 furnished a rich and fascinating tapestry of the impact of storytelling in the news. Despite the intent here to focus mainly on business stories, the business news was significantly affected by both politics and terrorism, and the interplay between them. 

In politics, we followed the impact of stories of the economy, in terms jobs (#81), social security (#82), the trade deficit (#85), and a comparison with European economic performance (#103). Foreign policy was touched by the stories of attack, counter-attack and supporting stories on defense (#96) and terrorism (#100). Even before Richard Clarke exploded on to the scene (#100), the story of terrorism had re-emerged with the train bombings in Madrid (#86), the analysis of risk (#89) the Spanish election upset (#90) and the ensuing stories about the cause of the upset (#91), all cast a long shadow over the business world.

The most frequent focus of the stories was the US, where I reside most of the time (although this issue of this webpage is being written in Australia, where I'm currently spending a week). However the global picture is also represented: one third of the stories were about the non-US stories. I examined the impact of storytelling in Europe ( #84, #92, #103), in France (#87, #88) in Spain (#86, #90, #91), in United Kingdom (#93, #95), in Germany (#98), and the Middle East (#97).

In terms of the variety of stories, we had the following:

   a. Stories that communicate who we are: people

Stories of identity played a major role during the month:
 
• On March 1 there were the competing identity stories about the chairman and CEO, Michael Eisner, who was forced on March 3 to give up his chairman role: #75

• On March 16, it emerged that a primary cause of the Spanish election upset was a changed identity story: thus, a suspicion by electors of false storytelling about who was responsible for the Madrid train bombings not only reversed the expected outcome, but also sent reverberations around the world as to the possible implications for other political leaders suspected of false storytelling in respect of the Iraq war: #91

• On March 20, the possible role of web logs (blogs), Wikis, Instant Messaging & RSS Feeds was examined as a way of telling our story: #94

• On  March 22, we had the interesting phenomenon of a Republican (McCain) helping define the positive identity a Democrat (John Kerry) on matters of national security: #96

• On March 25, we looked at the blessed aspect of identity known as a reverse credibility gap, which is currently enjoyed by Starbucks and enables it to shrug off negative stories that would otherwise depress its share price: #99

Identity narratives in the form of marketing and branding were also prominent:

• On March 3, we looked at the role of American brand narratives in a post-9/11 world #77

• On March 10, the story of how McDonald's is getting healthier even in Europe was examined:  #84

• On March 13 and 14, we took a look at the role of brand narratives in the high end fashion business at Gucci, Yyes Saint-Laurent and Louis Vuitton:  #87 and #88.

 
• On March 24, we noted how the new Mercedes-Benz ad campaign features customer stories: #98

Once again this month, by far the largest category of stories in the news were stories that share knowledge, including examples from the airline industry  #76, copyrights and patents of intellectual processes #79, Coca-Cola and bottled water #95, the oil industry #93, software and Microsoft  #92, 

Such stories were also a major dimension in the stories on the Spanish terrorist attacks and the subsequent election  (#86 and  #90),  jobs and the economy #81, and social security  #82,

   d. Future stories 

Future stories were also prominent. Some were decidedly negative:

• There were several examples of a cascade of gloomy future stories sparked off by apparently bad news. One was the record US trade deficit #85. Another was the Gaza City killing that jolted the world's stock markets #97. 

 
• The Financial Times offered a set of negative future stories about the prospects of Europe meeting its 2010 goal of global economic supremacy #103

• The advantage of a reverse credibility gap enable Starbucks to bask in relentlessly positive future stories:  #99

• The month ended on a positive note when New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman suddenly discovered the power of the imagination and concocted a remarkable series of positive future stories #104

Springboard stories - stories about the past that spark future action - were also in evidence:

• It was the remarkable springboard story that sparked Thomas Friedman spiraling upwards with a series of positive story: Friedman recalled the moment ten years previously when Yitzhak Rabin thrust out his hand to Yasir Arafat on the White House lawn. He acknowledged that Arafat turned out to be a fraud, but for a brief, shining moment, an old warrior, Mr. Rabin, stepped out of himself, his past, and all his scar tissue, and imagined something different:  #104

It was noted on March 15 that despite the massive casualties, a road safety program would be unlikely to succeed without some springboard story:  #89. However on March 28, that's exactly what happened: a road safety program launched in the US without a compelling story #102

There were a couple of examples of political satire used to make a serious point:

• On March 6, 2004: President Bush used a satire to make the case that his opponent, John Kerry, had adopted multiple positions on the issues:  #80. 

• On March 8, 2004, NYT columnist Paul Krugman likened fixing Social Security with personal accounts to dieting by eating only donuts:  #82.

Values were also notable particularly honesty:

• On March 9, Martha Stewart got a legal lesson in storytelling when she was convicted on four counts related to lying to a federal agent:  #83

• On March 26, 2004: Richard Clarke gave the whole world a lesson in the nature of organizational honesty and spin:  #100

• On an article on March 7, the New York Times noted the importance of narrative in establishing values in business #101

• On March 20, the possibilities of using blogs, Wikis, Instant Messaging & RSS Feeds to build community were discussed: #94

• On March 4, the role of communities in creating successful cities was reviewed:  #78

For more examples of Storytelling in The News, go to the Archive