Comments on: Telling Stories

By: Mark N

Mark N — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:52:35 +0000

John – Based on my experience I see two challenges with using data to tell your story. First, the data doesn’t necessarily differentiate institutions in the same category. This turned out to be the story with NSSE: Folks were really excited when this was first released to the public thinking it would help families make more informed choices. But the data turned out to be so ambiguous that it’s hard to imagine using it to make a college selection. Second, institutions are reluctant to release any data that would paint them in anything but the most positive light. For example, it would be helpful if institutions simply listed the number of majors in every major at their school. That’s not a bad metric for prospects to tell whether, say, political science is more popular at School A than School B. But most schools I know would be skittish to acknowledge that some of their majors have small enrollments.
So, yes, data could be used to tell a meaningful story but only if institutions are willing to be more transparent about their strengths and weaknesses and find data that enhances that transparency.

By: John

John — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:05:10 +0000

As an institutional researcher, while reading this I immediately was thinking of data as an alternative to stories. What do you think is the role of data in an institution telling its…um…story? Certainly the federal government thinks it’s important, given the large number of things we’re required to disclose, on the theory that prospective students (a) will read it, (b) will find it meaningful, (c) will act on it.

By: Mark N

Mark N — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:10:46 +0000

Lauren – You’re not the only in-house writer I’ve heard from since I wrote this post with basically the same thought. Seems like I struck a chord. As I’m sure you know, the rise of the web has only made this situation worse. It used to be at the very least you needed to take the trouble to embed the story in a magazine article or something that had some narrative context. Now you can just load content with little thought to the issues you mention. Keep up the good fight for purposeful communications.

By: Lauren Davidson

Lauren Davidson — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:59:29 +0000

Very interesting, Mark – thanks for posting on this topic! We’re always aiming to tell stories here and I sometimes wonder whether there’s enough thought given to the broader messaging and goals. Do we tell stories just because we think students respond to stories? Does a particular story really appeal to anyone besides those of us who know how incredible this kid/professor/alum really is? If we don’t have and can’t get great photography of a particular person/situation, should we work with mediocre images for what we think is a great story? Hmmm…