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Background

The Narrative Paradigm is a theory that suggests that human beings are natural storytellers and that a good story is more convincing than a good argument. Walter Fisher developed this theory as a solution making cohesive arguments. Fisher conceptualized the paradigm as a way to combat issues in the public sphere. The problem was that human beings were unable to make cohesive traditional arguments. At the time, the rational world paradigm was the theory used to satisfy public controversies. He believed that stories have the power to include a beginning, middle, and end of an argument and that the rational world paradigm fails to be effective in sensemaking.

Fisher uses the term paradigm rather than theory, meaning a paradigm is broader than a theory. Fisher stated, "There is no genre, including technical communication, that is not an episode in the story of life." For this reason, Fisher thought narration to be the ultimate metaphor to encompass the human experience.

Fisher believed that humans are not rational and proposed that the narrative is the basis of communication. Fisher notes that reasoning is achieved through "all sorts of symbolic action." According to this viewpoint, people communicate by telling/observing a compelling story rather than by producing evidence or constructing a logical argument. The narrative paradigm is purportedly all-encompassing, allowing all communication to be looked at as a narrative even though it may not conform to the traditional literary requirements of a narrative.

Applications

Narrative theory is an assessment framework within various fields of communication. Those who use narrative theory within their research refer to it as a general way of viewing communication. The narrative paradigm is generally considered an interpretative theory of communication. It is an especially useful theory for teaching qualitative research methods.

Fisher’s theory has been considered for domains ranging from organizational communication to family interaction, to racism, and to advertising. McNamara proposed that the narrative paradigm can be used with military storytelling to enhance the perception of the United States armed services. Stutts and Barker, of Virginia Commonwealth University, proposed that the Narrative Paradigm can be used to evaluate if a company's brand will be well received by consumers, by determining if the created narrative has coherence and fidelity. Other researchers proposed using the narrative paradigm to evaluate ethical standards in advertising. Roberts used the narrative paradigm as a way to better understand the use of narrative in folklore. Hobart proposed using narrative theory as a way to interpret urban legends and other kinds of hoaxes.

A study tested the effects of narrative suggestions on paranormal belief. Recall that Fisher's paradigm posits that a good story is more convincing than a good argument. This was put to the test by examining the combined effects of source credibility, narrative, and message modality based on Fisher's idea of narrative rationality. Participants were presented a fabricated news story about strange noises being heard in a nearby science lab. One set of the narratives included an explanation of natural causes for the noise. Another set were explained using a paranormal verbiage in the explanation. Additionally, the main character of the story was either presented as a child witness, a university student, or a scientist with the hypothesis that a possible disparagement in credibility could be a factor. This variation was subsequently utilized to determine if source credibility would affect the narrative suggestion. The study found that the belief in the paranormal narrative was positively correlated when narrative coherence and narrative fidelity (narrative rationality) were strong, regardless of message modality. It was also determined that source credibility had a statistically significant impact on the outcome of belief in the paranormal narrative.

Narrative paradigm is also applicable when assessing multinational working relationships. Global interactions between groups with different backgrounds have the tendency to hinder group progress and building relationships. Over the past two decades, scholars conceptualize diversity in the workplace using several different theories. As companies continue to diversify, businesses look for communication models to help manage the complex structure of human relationships. Narrative paradigm serves as a communication technique that shows companies how the application of a good story could provide benefits in the workforce. Storytelling is a cross-cultural solution that establishes credibility and trust in relationships between workers.

Narrative and health communication

A study claimed that narrative features could be strategically altered by health communicators to affect the reader's identification. It found that similarities between the reader and the narrative's protagonist, but not the narrator's point of view, has a direct impact on the narrative's persuasiveness.

Narrative and law

A growing number of legal scholars contend that narrative persuades in law. In one study, judges tended to prefer legal briefs taking a storytelling approach to those that do not. In response, legal scholars have applied narrative techniques to legal persuasion and even legal communication. Scholars in this area commonly refer to this application as "Applied Legal Storytelling." Legal storytelling in courtrooms requires a formalization of the narratives presented. This is achieved through the use of first- and third-party perspectives of a narrative to mitigate impartial reporting of the story.