Ethical Practice in Storytelling

(Note: These guidelines were developed by Amy Hill with support and feedback from numerous digital storytelling colleagues.)

Storyteller wellbeing. Storytellers’ physical, emotional, and social wellbeing must be at the center of all phases of a storytelling project. Facilitators must have expertise in group facilitation and must be committed to an approach that views the process of creating stories as important as the end products (media pieces). Facilitators should be attentive to how culture and power can impact relationships at all phases of a project, from planning to workshop participant recruiting to workshop facilitation and follow up (at Silence Speaks, we work from a stance of cultural humility [1]). Facilitators need to maintain appropriate boundaries at all times while remaining open to processes of listening and understanding.

Strategies to ensure the wellbeing of vulnerable participants are particularly important; personal storytelling is generally not appropriate for individuals currently experiencing strong symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. If trauma is present, a licensed clinician (e.g. social worker, counselor, therapist, etc.) should carefully screen potential participants to assess their readiness to share stories and should be available at the workshop, to provide any needed emotional support. Facilitators should gently support those storytellers who are sharing stories about especially painful life experiences in grieving what happened, and then in approaching their stories from a position of present-day agency and strength rather than from a vantage point that reinforces an identity and representation of victimization. Mechanisms for post-workshop debriefing must be in place, where necessary.

Consent to participate and share. Storytellers must have the knowledge and support they need to make informed choices about workshop participation and the content, production, and use of their work. Facilitators must provide storytellers with the information they need to make these choices and must make it clear to storytellers that they have the right to withdraw their stories from public circulation at any time (recognizing the constraints of withdrawal from Internet forms of distribution). Facilitators must be equipped with the information and skills necessary for offering guidance on these decision-making processes in a way that protects the dignity and safety of storytellers. Above all, consent must be viewed as a process, not as a one-time activity.

Knowledge production and ownership. Storytellers have the right to freedom of expression in representing themselves, in their stories. Facilitators should provide storytellers with the space and flexibility to describe what they have experienced, within the parameters or thematic concerns of a given project, as long as it’s safe for them to do so. Assessments of “safe” content should be made through conversations between storytellers and facilitators and based on a “do no harm” approach. Facilitators must also be prepared to assist storytellers in determining whether it is safe for them to attach their names to their stories and whether images of themselves or others should be blurred or left out, to protect privacy and maintain safety. All participating storytellers and facilitators must agree to maintain confidentiality about information and materials that are revealed in a workshop but do not make it into publicly circulated stories. Where possible, facilitators should engage interested storytellers in outlining broader context and discussion points for their stories and in determining where, why, and how stories will be publicly distributed.

Local relevance. Storytelling projects must be sensitive and appropriate to local contexts and needs. Facilitators should carefully research issues to be addressed and work with local partners to develop and carry out realistic plans for storyteller recruitment and preparation to attend the workshop. Facilitators are strongly encouraged to engage local teaching assistants to provide culturally-appropriate support. Facilitators should conduct workshops in local languages, with support where necessary from skilled interpreters and translators who are “cultural insiders.” Facilitators should adapt their storytelling methods to fit local technological resources and capacities, emphasizing always the importance of first-person voice, group process, and participatory production.

Ethical engagement as a continual process. Ethics must be viewed as a process, rather than as a one-off occasion of “gaining consent.” Ongoing dialogue between storytellers, facilitators, partner organizations, and funders about how best to design and implement an ethically-responsible storytelling project is key to ethical practice. This includes the development of project goals and objectives, storyteller recruitment and preparation strategies, privacy guidelines, strategies to ensure emotional support for storytellers during and following workshops, and story distribution strategies.

Ethical story distribution. Storytellers must be provided with copies of their finished stories in a media format they can access, before those stories are distributed or displayed in any setting. Story distribution strategies must be rooted first and foremost in the needs of, and designed to benefit, storytellers and their local communities, rather than primarily serving the agendas of distant viewers or funders. Viewing audiences should be advised in advance when stories contain deeply sensitive material and should be provided with opportunities to talk about what they have seen and heard. Stories about sensitive or stigmatized topics should be shown only in carefully-facilitated venues and with the involvement of an individual knowledgeable about the issues portrayed, who can debrief audiences and provide referrals to support services if necessary. If sensitive stories are being shared online, appropriate viewer advisories and background context should accompany their presentation.

Conditions for Ethical Practice

•       Facilitators and partners must have clarity about storytelling project goals, methods, and story distribution intentions.

•       Facilitators and partners must be transparent with storytellers, about workshop and story distribution goals and methods. This transparency must be woven through the life of a project, from storyteller recruitment to workshop implementation and eventual story distribution.

•       Facilitators must have the skills needed to lead workshops with a high level of competency (for leading group processes; supporting writing, story recording, and image gathering activities; teaching technology skills; addressing emotionally difficult subject matter; and engaging with groups from a position of cultural humility).

•       Facilitators must be committed to assisting storytellers in making decisions that will ensure their safety, and, where needed or desired, protect their privacy.

•       Project partners must maintain ongoing communication with storytellers and partners, to address any concerns that may arise for them following a workshop.

A Few Words On Image Ethics

At Silence Speaks, we support those we work with in creating compelling and meaningful narratives. This means we offer guidance to storytellers not only on their written or spoken stories, but also on their choices for visual representation. We stress an ethical approach to gathering and working with images.

Visual images are not neutral … especially those of people.

Above all, we believe it’s important to recognize that visual images (photos or video clips) of real people are not neutral. A relationship always exists, between the photographer or videographer, and the subject, and it is usually one that is power-based (meaning, the person with the camera is relatively empowered, and the photo “subjects” are relatively disempowered).

Here’s a simple example: why is that when photos in which people can be identified are published or displayed in an art gallery, the name of the photographer is almos always provided, but the names of the people depicted in the photos generally are not? What does this say about the dimension of power, when it comes to visual representation?

Our commitment to human dignity and social justice means that we take seriously the nuances of these inherent power dynamics and do our best to address them as they emerge in connection to a particular story or workshop context. This may mean suggesting that certain images are not effective, or it may mean suggesting ways to represent people without showing identifiable faces, when doing so could put people at risk of harm.

What do laws and professional standards say?

When it comes to capturing or publishing photos taken of people in public settings, laws vary from country to country. This means that it’s important to be mindful about the legalities of working in a particular setting and to convey correct information to storytellers.

In the United States, it IS legal to take photos of people IN PUBLIC, and to publish them, even for commercial purposes. At Silence Speaks, however, we believe that just because a person “can” do something doesn’t mean they should do it.

We suggest that some of the ethics standards offered by the National Press Photographer’s Association (NPA) offer a useful starting point on this topic. For us, because the storytellers we work with are taking and presenting photos and video clips together with voiceover narration, text, and sound (music or sound effects), we stress the importance of the NPA standard that reads:

“Do not manipulate images or add or alter sound in any way that might mislead viewers or mis-represent subjects.”

The sense that doing this is unethical is why we ask storytellers in our workshops to refrain from using a visual image (photo or video clip) of one person to “represent” a different person, in relation to what is being said in the story voiceover.

In some cases, particularly when a story is focusing on a divisive, stigmatized, or highly sensitive topic like violence, we go beyond the above guidance to suggest that storytellers avoid using any visuals of people they don’t know, at any point in their stories.

By contrast, in other cases, visual images of people taken in public can add great value to a story. When this is true -- and in parts of the world where public photography / videography and the use of such visuals is legal -- we request that storytellers follow this NPA standard:

“Treat subjects with respect and dignity, strive to be unobtrusive and humble, when dealing with subjects.”

Implicit in the above are the need to ask for verbal consent BEFORE taking photos / video clips; the need to explain the purpose of taking photos / video clips (for example, “I’m creating a short video narrative exploring this topic, and I may wish to use images such as X, Y, or Z …”); and the offer to share the finished story with subjects, where possible (for example, by taking down the subjects’ email addresses and offering to send them a link to the completed story online).

And finally, the enduring question: “what about copyright?”

Most people know by now that it’s not legal to simply grab and re-use images found online. Here’s a helpful overview to the topic. In our Silence Speaks work, we tend to focus less on the legalities of using online images and more on aesthetic choices. We want storytellers to feel connected to their own narratives, and we want story viewers to SEE that connection – to recognize a spark of uniqueness in each story. This means emphasizing the power of original visual images, whether they’re family photos or experimental video clips shot on location during production. We believe that when a storyteller uses a stock image or an AI-generated image, they are undermining the precious individuality of their story, so we advise the use of such items. We suggest instead that storytellers use the workshop opportunity as a chance to challenge themselves creatively, in the realm of image, by creating their own images.

Storyteller Bill of Rights

In relation to a storytelling workshop, you have …

·       The right to know from the outset why a workshop is being carried out.

·       The right to assistance in deciding whether you are ready to share a story.

·       The right to understand what is involved in the process of producing a story.

·       The right to know who might view your finished story, after the workshop.

·       The right to decide for yourself whether to participate in a workshop.

·       The right to ask questions at any stage of the workshop, before, during, or after.

·       The right to ask for teaching instructions to be repeated or clarified.

·       The right to skilled emotional support when your experience is emotionally challenging.

·       The right to tell your story in the way you want, within the limits of the workshop.

·       The right to decide what personal information to reveal during the workshop.

·       The right to competent advice about what may place you at risk of harm.

·       The right to leave particular information and/or images out of your final story.

·       The right to reject story feedback if it is not useful or offered respectfully.

·       The right to decide what language to use in telling and creating your story.

·       The right to be respected and supported by capable workshop facilitators.

·       The right to a written consent form, if your story will be shared publicly.

·       The right to know what contact and support you can expect after the workshop.

In relation to sharing your story after a workshop, you have …

·       The right to decide collaboratively with project partners how your story will be shared.

·       The right to view and retain a copy of your story before it is shared publicly in any way.

·       The right to know who is likely to screen your story and for what purposes.

·       The right to know who is likely to watch or read your story and when.

·       The right to counsel on the potential sensitivities of sharing your story in public.

·       The right to emotional support if you are present when your story is shown in public.

·       The right to demand that no one should be able to sell your story for profit.

·       The right to withdraw your consent for the use of your story at any time.

·       The right to information about the limits of withdrawing consent for sharing.

[1] Cultural humility is a lifelong process of self-reflection and self-critique. The starting point for such an approach is not an examination of someone else’s belief system, but rather a process of considering one’s own assumptions and beliefs, which are embedded in one’s own understandings and life experiences.