Standards + Practices
Towards Industry Standards
Ethical Standards
When an organization keeps these ethical standards, the following statement is true for every story the organization publishes:
“This person consented to their story being told publicly, including the use of these images/video of them. They gave consent understanding the objective of telling the story, and the context within which it was going to be told. They saw the exact version I’m looking at and gave their approval after any edits were made that they requested. They are identified — by name, false name or anonymous — exactly as they wanted to be. They had the opportunity to discuss all of the questions, goals and concerns they had about this publicity before the process started, during the process and after it was over. They participated because they wanted to, not because they thought they thought they had to in order to receive something they needed. If they were sitting beside me right now, they wouldn’t be surprised seeing this story about them.”
Best Practices
While some organizations have offered their best practices and principles, there is not yet consensus on industry standards.
Early impact storytelling adopted the Media & Entertainment media releases and Journalism privacy standards. However, the ethical issues of organizational storytelling extend beyond both of these industries.
Tensions remain:
The story economy rewards organizations that provide more compelling content, which can benefit organizations where the social issue is less complex and the beneficiaries are more comfortable telling their life story.
Well-funded organizations have an advantage: storytelling requires funding.
The social mission of the organization can appear to blur boundaries of power and exploitation.
The following standards and best practices are proposed industry standards.
Informed Consent
Informed consent means the participant understands the objective of the story, the plan for use and distribution, the format and context. A media release is not informed consent. Participants also consent to the use of their name, and have the option of changing or withholding their name without consequence.
Story Approval
A story is never “pre-approved”. Approval can only happen after the final product has been produced (not a working draft). The purpose of approval is to verify that what was produced is what they consented to. If not, they can request edits or withdraw consent.
Publicity Support Equity
Organizations using storytelling offer publicity support to everyone participating in publicity for the organization, not just staff. Support includes: discussing personal goals and potential risks, media prep, every media interview is staffed, visual presentation.
Stakes-free Storytelling
Storytelling is completely detached from a beneficiary’s access to the organization’s work. Storytelling does not create stakes: participants are not compensated for telling their story but they are reimbursed for costs incurred.
Trauma-informed Approach
Stories that include traumatic events — such as war, violence, domestic abuse, sexual assault — were collected using a trauma-informed approach.
Always Be Storytelling
If your organization plans to use storytelling in communications, invest in it as an ongoing strategy rather than only being responsive to requests. If you don’t have organizational support to invest in a storytelling strategy, you won’t have organizational support to make ethical storytelling decisions. Ethical decisions are more difficult when you are under a deadline; collecting stories in advance protects ethical practice.
Consent, Often
During the storytelling process, confirm consent frequently. Create opportunities where the participant could update you that they have changed their mind. The more they affirm their choice, the more confident they will be in the interview, and if they’ve changed their mind — you don’t want them there.
If It’s Novel, Let It Go
Stories in communication are to be representative — not an outlier”. If the story is a one-off, it’s not representative. Participants can feel pressured to consent if their story is a one-off and no-one else’s story will work.
Publicity Gets a Publicist
Provide your participants with the same level of publicity support as the Executive Director is provided with, including any personal goals, prepping media questions, and visuals (if on-camera). Discuss any off-limits topics and ensure any interview is staffed: interviewees should rely on a publicist to object to any off-limits topics in the moment.
What’s the worst that could happen?
Do the thought experiment: imagine you open the newspaper and read the story, and when you’re done you say “I really wish I hadn’t done that.” What might those circumstances be?
Approval. Every Time
Request approval from the participant with each use: people’s stories change as their lives change and they can’t tell you a story is outdated if you don’t ask to use it. Approval must be of the final product: production details that might not seem important to the organization could be important to them.
You Are Not the News
Unless a news event directly affects a participant, do not publish personal stories to create relevance to a news event.