So you really want to be a Game Changer?

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#Leadorfollowudecide #SocialImpactEntertainment #MITPJA #CauseBasedContent

“When a piece of entertainment speaks to the cultural and social dimensions of an issue, it’s possible to change social and cultural norms.” - Anthony Leiserowitz, Ph.D., Director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

In writing this week’s post I had to review several recent studies about SIE and its effect on the current entertainment landscape (The State of SIE - UCLA/Skoll Centre). There is undoubtedly an upward trend in Cause Based Content (CBC) and the diversity of voices/perspectives driving platform based content (film/television/online) narratives and it’s various executions. Yet as we move closer towards Global parity within various industries it’s also interesting to note that there is more of a trend in visual and/or graphic design style (typically youth focused) than narrative (i.e. one story, multiple executions and perspectives).

So is this the new Normal? And if so, at what point will we exhaust our audiences attention span, and at what point will we pivot back to creating engaging stories that offers insight and escapism for the average person? Will it be possible to maintain this level of engagement with our audiences and provide them with the CBC that they desire, but yet still give them agency over which causes to support, or not; without leaving them with a sense of guilt for not boycotting the right brands and/or products and/or CBC exhaustion. 

You see when I created the hashtag #Leadorfollowudecide, it spoke more to content creators than to audiences. But in this age of interconnectivity, with audiences helping to extend the narrative by their actions (or inaction), it stands to reason that they (the audience) are in fact one of its (content) creators. So in that same spirit this call to action is in effect for both narrative creators and audiences alike. As Mr. Leiserowitz so frankly stated - it is possible to change social and cultural norms with CBC. So whether independently or collectively, we will ultimately decide how far down this path of #WholeLifeIntegration we will go.