According to a recent study of about 100 college students, some TV shows help viewers to become kinder and more generous toward people who are different from them — even if the show itself doesn’t directly address diversity. “After viewing meaningful entertainment, as opposed to more humorous entertainment, people were more likely to help in general, but also they were more likely to help someone who was different from them,” explained Erica Bailey, a mass communications doctoral student at Penn State and lead author of the study.

Infecting An Audience: Why Great Stories Spread.

"The Ward Game, an elaborate 30-day pervasive game that aims to teach Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to high school seniors"

"THE LEADER IN NARRATIVE BEST PRACTICES AND TEAM-BASED HEALTHCARE PROGRAMS Narrative Medicine fortifies clinical practice with the narrative competence to recognize, absorb, metabolize, interpret, and be moved by the stories of illness. Through narrative training, the Program in Narrative Medicine helps physicians, nurses, social workers, mental health professionals, chaplains, social workers, academics, and all those interested in the intersection between narrative and medicine improve the effectiveness of care by developing these skills with patients and colleagues. Our research and outreach missions are conceptualizing, evaluating, and spear-heading these ideas and practices nationally and internationally."

"Real-world personalized training is the key to engagement Our key to learner engagement has been the use of real-life stories told in real-life places. This strengthens relevance and motivation and demonstrates actual on-the-job benefits. Secondly we use interactive, branching narratives that show learners the consequences of their decisions – intrinsically motivating them through autonomy and providing multiple learning pathways. Third and finally our participatory experiences focus on doing rather than just knowing – making the learner an active player in their own personalized learning journey."

"I would prefer people to come out the film with some questions, and be compelled to go find the answers to those questions, than harm the drama by making the actors illustrate with their words. And as I said, this is one beauty of a transmedia project: you have other outlets to handle raw information-giving, so there’s no real need to cram everything into your film, or to bend over backwards to make sure some piece of information is communicated through an actor. I think the bigger job is make sure the audience wants to go find the answer. And that comes through real drama."

This toolkit provides resources for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to think more deeply about the social issues represented in the MCU and take action in our own world.

case study of university story booth - from goodman center