☆ This local campaign season suggests politicians have lost the ability to build coherent narratives
.jpg){kind=link}
Our Susie Murillo takes a look at the debris from this year's campaign material and notes that everyone's infected by social media's Everpresent Now. An Opp Now exclusive.
I know this has happened to you.
It's 10pm. You crawl into bed with la gata. Pull up a Netflix movie that looks fun.
High-quality, drone-shot intro. Good characters. Maybe a chase scene.
But then, somewhere around Minute 10: Bonk.
A bad piece of writing. A stupid plot twist. Trite injection of politics.
And they've lost you. Lost the thread. Lost the plot.
I bring this up because it's an almost perfect simile for the sad state of this year's city, county, and statewide election campaigns:
Narrative-free.
No beginning, middle, end.
A parade of ads, posts, sound bites that desperately seek an instant hit.
But they never tell a story.
No wonder campaigns cost so much--over $100/vote for some candidates in the governor's race. And why? Because their creative material didn't work--it was just disconnected single shots that don't do much on their own, and don't do squat taken together.
It's easy to blame this on our culture's fractured attention spans, on the Internet's reinvention of time as simply An Everpresent Now.
And commentators see the same phenom (as this Weekend's Readings show) in film, tv, novels, and journalism.
But here's my optimistic scenario: Given that we've lost the ability as human writers, designers, directors, and journalists to tell a story--hey--maybe AI can help us rediscover the Lost Art of Storytelling
Hmm. After I post this I think I'll prompt Claude to make this article read more like a slow-burn suspense thriller.
I bet it improves.
--Susie Murillo
Here are this weekend's new stories:
The Goldfish Attention Span
Social media algorithms are designed to provide instant gratification. No surprise, then, that platforms like TikTok, X, and Instagram try to squeeze ideas into 15-to-60-second bursts. Little room left for a traditional three-act structure, or nuanced narrative arc. U.K.'s Walk Through Walls website explores.
Read more
Redefining stories
The word "story" itself has been linguistically hijacked. Panther Press, the news site for Edwin O. Smith High School in Connecticut, notes that a story is no longer a wisdom-bearing oral tradition passed down by elders; it is a temporary 24-hour visual snippet posted on Instagram or Snapchat.
Why don't politicians learn from bad ads?
Because politicians and their creative teams work in a professional bubble, in which they don't allow contrary voices or critiques into the inner circle. When convinced of your own genius, trouble ensues. Workzone examines.
Follow Opportunity Now on Twitter @svopportunity
We prize letters from our thoughtful readers. Typed on a Smith Corona. Written in longhand on fine stationery. Scribbled on a napkin. Hey, even composed on email. Feel free to send your comments to us at opportunitynowsv@gmail.com or (snail mail) 1590 Calaveras Ave., SJ, CA 95126. Remember to be thoughtful and polite. We will post letters on an irregular basis on the main Opp Now site.