Orienting Together: Mapping your Narrative Landscape

This article from Narrative Initiative introduces the practice of narrative landscaping and can help you better understand the harmful and helpful stories related to a particular issue. It outlines why you should map your narrative landscape, and explains a six step process to get started. The steps include 1) identifying key stakeholders, 2) talking to stakeholders to identify relevant narratives, 3) documenting stakeholder insights, 4) looking for deeper worldviews underlying identified narratives, 5) creating a list defining each narrative identified, and 6) sharing results with stakeholders and discussing next steps. This practical guidance will be most useful to communications professionals or anyone planning a narrative change project.