Article ID: CBB001090668

Harnessing the Persuasive Power of Narrative: Science, Storytelling, and Movie Censorship, 1930–1968 (2018)

unapi

As the deficit model's failure leaves scientists searching for more effective communicative approaches, science communication scholars have begun promoting narrative as a potent persuasive tool. Narratives can help the public make choices by setting out a scientific issue's contexts, establishing the stakes involved, and offering potential solutions. However, employing narrative for persuasion risks embracing the same top-down communication approach underlying deficit model thinking. This essay explores the parallels between movie censorship and the current use of narrative to influence public opinion by examining how the Hays Office and the Catholic Legion of Decency responded to science in movies. I argue that deploying narratives solely as public relations exercises demonstrates the same mistrust of audiences that provided the foundation of movie censorship. But the history of movie censorship reveals the dangers of using narrative to remove the public's agency and to coerce them towards a preferred position rather than fostering their ability to come to their own conclusions.

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Authors & Contributors
Wosk, Julie
Morgan Spencer
Butsch, Richard
Beatriz Medina
Finn, Megan
Pieter Cools
Concepts
Motion pictures; cinema; movies
Technology and society
Public opinion
Technology and culture
Communication science
Technology and film
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
19th century
Places
United States
Soviet Union
Los Angeles (California)
Argentina
Spain
Japan
Institutions
International Panel on Social Progress (IPSP)
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