The way I’ve talked about narrative change in the past, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was kind of a lengthy, drawn-out process. If I’m working on a narrative strategy project with a client, for example, there’s usually some type of methodology involved in the work – first, you have to understand what narratives the client wants to change, then you have to understand the dominant narratives shaping how people think and feel about whatever issue you’re focused on, then you have to do research with target audiences to understand what is influencing them to believe or think a certain way, then you come up with alternative narratives, then you test them, and then yada yada yada….
Yeah, it sounds like a lot. (It’s actually a lot more fun than I just made it sound, but then again, I’m perennially fascinated by how and what people think and feel.) And for the most part, I’d stick by the methodology as a way to help people learn about and then start engaging in the work of narrative change. HOWEVER, I feel like it would be irresponsible for me not to point out the exceptions – meaning, the times when dominant narratives shifted extremely quickly and you’re like: WTF just happened?
The example I’m obviously going to talk about is, the transition from President Biden to Kamala Harris as the presumptive Democratic nominee. Right up until the moment that Biden announced his step-down from a second term, the dominant narratives were:
- Biden was failing, cognitively and physically. He was not anywhere near equipped to handle a second term, let alone a bruising campaign against the MAGA Republicans.
- Trump was “invigorated” by the debate, by the assassination attempt, and by the prospect of becoming America’s Dictator.
- The Democrats were on track to inevitable defeat for the White House, and then all of our rights would be taken away and we’d essentially be living in a dictatorship.
- The ONLY way forward for the Democrats was to hold an open contest at the Democratic convention for another candidate and to pry the delegates who were already pledged to Biden out of his grip, which was absolutely opposite to the narratives put out by Biden loyalists who were furious at all of the older white men who were suddenly projecting their own fears and inadequacy onto POTUS.
And now that Biden has stepped back and endorsed Harris, the narratives have completely shifted. Here are some of the narratives that have dominated media for the past few weeks:
- It’s the prosecutor versus the criminal, and it’s obvious who’s gonna win.
- All of Harris’s previous liabilities (during her primary presidential run) are now assets.
- The Republicans were caught so flatfooted by Biden’s decision, they are doubling down on their normal playbook of misogyny and racism and it’s not going well for them.
- The Democrats have succeeded in tagging Project 2025 to the Republicans, especially to Trump, and it’s incredibly unpopular with the majority of Americans.
- There are astonishing gobs of money going into Harris’s campaign, and it’s flowing from both the major donor and grassroots levels.
- Black people are finally getting long-overdue recognition for their tireless political activism and leadership
- Generation TikTok has stepped up for Harris.
- Biden is riding the goodwill generated by his decision and is now free to say the things he was unable to say as a candidate, like, we’ve got to get those corrupt looters off the Supreme Court, for pete’s sake!
Are you feeling a little disoriented? Confused? Overwhelmed? I don’t blame you, although if you share my values, the new narratives feel a lot less anxiety- and despair-inducing than the former ones. But mostly, I wanted to highlight this contrast between old and new because it’s one of the fastest narrative shifts I’ve ever seen in my entire life and it made me think, of course, about what parts of this astonishing change are replicable and what parts are not. So here are some observations I’ve been mulling over from this particular example:
First of all, I feel like this particular example illustrates a point I often make when engaged in narrative strategy work, which is that narrative change strategies work best when integrated with other levers you are pulling to create change – e.g., legal, policy, programmatic. In other words, the astonishing narrative/messaging work that is happening right now around Harris as a winning candidate was only made possible because Biden made the decision to step back. To put it even more plainly, you need a catalyst – in this case, Biden’s decision – to open the door for new narratives to walk through. This, to me, raises interesting possibilities for narrative change strategies because it makes me wonder if narrative change work needs to incorporate some scenario planning into the methodology. If a bunch of entities say, we want to get people engaged on solutions about climate change/education/healthcare/criminal justice reform/affordable housing, you could potentially plan your narrative change strategies to piggyback off of big events if and when those events actually happen.
Two, I think it is worth thinking about the journey from the Biden-is-failing narratives to the Harris-is-winning narratives in terms of who was driving the narratives, and why the driving changed hands. There were many independent activists and journalists, like Rebecca Solnit and Josh Marshall, who did amazing work during the period between the debate and Biden’s decision to call out mainstream media outlets for how relentlessly they were covering Biden’s failings and how shoddily and inadequately they were covering Trump’s failings. And man, did they bring receipts. It was truly astonishing, actually – for someone like me, who grew up in a time when journalists were supposed to have integrity and standards, I am still absolutely enraged about this. While I think Biden’s campaign made some astonishingly bad decisions (like insisting on the debate while turning a blind eye to Biden’s current capacities and ongoing communication challenges), I actually can’t see how they could have successfully fought back against those harmful narratives when the enormous volume of media coverage was so, so biased and inflammatory.
In all honesty, while I too was extra-worried about Biden after the debate performance, my feelings were more complex than what was being mirrored back to me from the news: I was also upset that his administration’s considerable achievements were getting overlooked or ignored. I was furious at the mainstream media outlets. I was mad at George Clooney and Adam Schiff. But most of all, I couldn’t see a viable path forward until Biden himself outlined that path. During those days, being anywhere near the media – mainstream or social – felt like being dipped in a burning cauldron of acid. I was struggling. Which brings me to my final point about narrative strategy work, which is:
A lot of the research that goes into narrative strategy work is about people’s feelings. We in the communications field say that we examine people’s beliefs, their values, and lived experiences, etc, but the real reason we engage in narrative strategy work is because it’s a powerful tool for change – narratives are stories, or patterns of stories. Stories make us feel a certain way. Stories are powerful amplifiers of emotions we may be having and of emotions we want to feel and of emotions we may not want to feel.
I have many memories of crying happy tears while Obama was the President. I cried because he spoke in a way that made me feel hopeful, and inspired. I cried because he said things I was desperate to hear, about what we in this country could achieve, what we could believe in, what we could do. I cried because he sometimes showed us he was a human being, like us (the moment when he sang “Amazing Grace” in the Charleston church where a devastating mass murder took place will live forever in my memories).
Biden hasn’t inspired that same level of emotion in me. (Let me also admit that Bill and Hillary inspired me even less.) But I did feel genuine emotion, reading his letter announcing his decision to step down, and then hearing snippets from his Oval Office address when he talked about how it was time for him to pass the torch.
In other words, Biden was pretty terrible as a narrative strategist – but he kicked ass as a narrative catalyst. He made it possible for new narratives to come through. And I cannot tell you how grateful I am that the Harris team seized the opportunity and ran with it. I was no fan of hers during the 2020 primary, I especially thought her social media feeds were shit, but thank god, she seems to have a better team in place now. (The TikTok parodies depicting her imaginary Gen Z team explaining to the rest of her team what “mother” and “brat” means have me DYING.)
But overall, if someone asked if that type of rapid-fire narrative turnaround was possible on other issues, I’d be like yeah, probably not. Unless you happen to be gifted with the prescience of whether a big event will kick open that door for you to get in there with your narratives.
Minna Jung Consulting 