Who owns the stories?
Dependent on your approach to collecting stories, you will likely come across formal and informal issues related to ownership. If stories have been previously published, in physical (e.g. books) or online (e.g. websites) formats there will likely be copyright, and possibly GDPR considerations. If stories have not been published (e.g. word of mouth), there is still a moral obligation to consider who owns stories and how these should be shared and acknowledged. All stories you collect may, therefore, come with a need to gather consent and/ or permission to share them at a later point.
Questions to answer
- Who owns the stories?
- Are there any copyright/ GDPR considerations?
- Do you have a permission to tell these stories?
- Do you need informed consent from the story owner’s?
Should you collect and tell the stories?
Following on from some of the issues considered in the Voice part of this toolkit, it is advisable to take a pause before and during the collection of stories to ask whether the stories being collected should be told.
This question extends beyond ownership and into ethical and moral considerations. For instance, stories may represent difficult histories that may be uncomfortable and impactful for certain communities. Additionally, a story may represent, or express opinion, about particular people or marginalised groups. It may be important for these stories to be told but they may need to be treated with sensitivity and empathy for those affected.
Questions to answer
- Do the stories you are collecting present any moral/ ethical issues?
- Are these stories ‘difficult’ to tell? Do they deal with sensitive issues or subjects?
- Is it important to collect and tell them? Should I collect and tell them? Why?
Who is affected?
The decision to collect a story or not may be determined by who is likely to be affected by it. This may have temporal dimensions – how old is the story? Who is still around to be affected by it? It may also have geographic dimensions – how close are people to the story? Is it likely to impact someone if a story is located in a certain place?
The telling of place-based stories can have social, cultural, economic and environmental impacts on local communities. It may drive people to a certain place to experience the story providing economic benefits through tourism. However, equally this may lead to overcrowding and environmental issues. As such, knowing the purpose of your story and how the stories collected may be interpreted in the future will help you to understand who the impacted communities are likely to be.
Further reading
People may also be affected if the story being collected and told is within living memory – especially if that story is difficult or represents people in a negative way. This may present ethical issues during the Collection stage if these memories evoke difficult emotions. Likewise, how these stories are later curated and created into outputs may lead to additional impacts in the future. As such, it is important to consider who is potentially impacted by the stories being collected and why this is important for the Collection stage and future of your project.
Questions to answer
- Who is affected by the stories you are collecting?
- How does this impact how you collect stories and the future of your project?
Are the stories ‘true’? And is it important?
The same story can be told from multiple perspectives and different types of stories deal with different versions of ‘truth’. For instance, some historical stories will be embedded in facts and research, and this is important for the reliability and accuracy of the information being conveyed. Myths and Legends may be entirely fictional, or draw upon elements of truth, overlayed with fictional worlds, characters or narratives.
Stories also present a complex interaction between the collective memory of a story (and an individual’s take on the story) and the ‘fact’ or ‘reality’ that underpins it. As stories evolve and change over time, individuals or communities often develop their own version which is important to them. A single truth is, therefore, not always clear or easy to interpret in storytelling – nor is it necessarily needed.
Questions to answer
- How important is ‘truth’ to you and in the stories you are collecting?
- How will you determine what is true (if important)?
- Who will determine what is true (if important)?