Why does the study of philosophy matter in the business of storytelling?
On why I would tell my younger self to have studied philosophy in college
What draws me to the business of storytelling is this endless quest of “Why do certain narratives resonate with specific types of audiences?”
This question has never been so relevant, for three reasons:
The next technology businesses will be in media and entertainment.
Creator culture will be giving rise to digital subcultures, virtual avatars, and emerging media labels - which shape the future of work.
Media shapes identity, and identity shapes local, state, and national politics.
At the same time, the United States 2020 presidential election has revealed that Americans live in many different parallel media realities, shaped by physical and digital geography.
Depending on where you consume your news, your social circle, or your view of human nature, these foundational experiences construct your political value system.
And once strongly entrenched, they are very hard to change. They shape consumer spending, and how societies dictate where tax dollars go to fund public services.
Waking up to this news is pretty incredible. It’s so surreal that watching the same YouTube news video can elicit several drastically different emotional responses.
These realizations made me realize that understanding why narratives resonate with audiences matter more than ever.
Philosophy gives us the rhetorical tools needed to deconstruct powerful media messaging, regardless of physical or digital geography.
As trends such as internet nationalism collide with economic globalism, emerging digital subcultures clash with mainstream media platforms, what we’re witnessing is the rise of digital media messaging in the formation of new social and political identities.
The restructuring of the old political & economic order, accelerated by COVID-19, remote work, artificial intelligence, the redistribution of the labor force - has led to a very powerful rhetorical device (and marketing tool):
Leveraging past life experiences, good or bad, based on existing constructed identity
Creating narrative that persuades the audience of the benefits of new technology, fashion, character traits, that are relevant to the upward mobility of these identities
Paint a vision of this narrative, via world-building, frontier geographies, character personas - thus reinventing a new identity based on the past, present, and future.
Whether these narratives succeed or not, depends on the strength of the argument or vision of the world they paint to their audiences.
With the rise of digital subcultures, we’re going to see the rise of competing media narratives that compete for our attention.
And its our job, more than ever, to decide which ones stick, and which ones are irrelevant. This level of responsibility has never been so high than ever.
Philosophy gives us the rhetorical tools needed to weigh the strength and weaknesses of competing media narratives
These competing media narratives will give rise to different political coalitions that are based on constructed digital identities.
The key to deconstructing these narratives is to observe how retailers and brands plan their marketing campaigns, via the different omnichannel marketing channels and their editorial calendars.
Each incremental step in their marketing campaign is a form of iterative storytelling, which then builds the collective memory of each consumer demographic.
Sharpening our rhetorical acumen allows us to understand which identities will stick, which ones will not, and which ones will emerge.
Building our rhetorical acumen gives us a vehicle, vocabulary, and lens in the complexities of human nature.
While human nature has its strong primal bases, cultivated media narratives over time give us a sense of the masks that different demographics choose to adopt.
It’s our job as society to decide or weigh which media narratives will resonate with others.
Why would I have told my younger self to study philosophy?
In university, I remember a high emphasis on developing hard skillsets to prepare yourself for the workforce.
However, what I learned in life is that hard skills can always be studied later, repeatedly in life. It’s never too late to pick up hard skills - especially since many hard skillsets can be picked up via the Internet via discipline, resilience, and patience.
Philosophy matters more than ever, because it allows us to deconstruct many of the rhetorical devices that have shaped the people around you via media messaging - both from a personal and professional level.
It’s amazing how many of my friends and family members have changed these past 5-10 years, with a big thanks to media messaging.
I’ve found these changes have made it difficult to find the right ways to communicate, or even break the ice - it’s made the common basis for communication difficult.
Philosophy gives us a vocabulary that allows us to create art: fiction, film, fine art, etc. - that constructs culture and creates a cohesive civil society.
A cohesive civil society allows us to create stable political institutions that ensure society can function with limited civil unrest.
The big question is with the restructuring of social, economic, political, and cultural institutions in the next 20 years, what will these cultures look like?