What We Do

---

In Narrative Nation, we believe who is telling the story matters and that health equity is, at its core, a racial justice issue. 

To that end, we engage and connect skilled African American and Latino journalists, writers, filmmakers and other creatives of color and harness their collective power, media expertise and cultural knowledge to address the greatest public health challenge and most pernicious social injustice of our time. 

We believe a critical element to shifting health behaviors is ultimately about human interaction and narrative communication—the most basic mode of human interaction, not just the science, data and evidence-based approach primarily rooted in and dictated by dominant culture standards. 

WHY THIS MATTERS!  

Eliminating health disparities is a Healthy People 2020 goal. It was also a Healthy People 2010 goal that has not been achieved. To date, the dominant paradigm in health communication has involved using statistical evidence, medical research and appeals to logic and reason. These efforts have failed to significantly narrow persistent health disparities, particularly among African American and Latino communities, and fail to openly acknowledge and address the role of systemic racism, including media bias, in these outcomes. 

The result is far too many black and Latino infants, children and adults living with plausibly avoidable diseases and dying at younger ages from preventable causes related to heart disease, diabetes, cancer and infant and maternal mortality, among other disparities—robbing families of precious loved ones and communities of critical resources. 

All of this is occurring within the broader context; the lack of diversity in America’s newsrooms has been well documented leading to tone-deaf, biased coverage of critical news, particularly in health journalism. Marketing and public relations firms focused on health communication and messaging are predominantly white. 

Non-representation and under representation in any powerful industry is a form of oppression, this is particularly acute in quality of life matters such as health. 

Current messages are often focused on the problem, using scare-tactics and other negatively-charged tactics which often result in “disease fatigue” and a sense of hopelessness. 

Narrative Nation, on the other land, disrupts that harmful pattern and centers Black and Latino communities to heal themselves through rigorous, evidence-based solutions journalism. 

Shifting power over the narrative leads to impactful storytelling, empowering messaging campaigns and communication initiatives that resonate with these communities. 

How We Work: 

Narrative Nation seeks grant funding and corporate philanthropic donations. Foundations or organizations with an interest or focus on a certain health disparity can partner with Narrative Nation to deploy participatory, digital, visual and narrative methods to create engaging multi-media content using a behavioral change approach. 

•  Media companies can fund trainings for young health journalists that can serve as pipeline programs to improve diversity among the ranks of health journalists. 

• Healthcare companies can commission media projects that explore pressing health disparities from a contextual and prescriptive landscape. 

• Public health organizations can fund a “solutions journalism” project to explore what is working as a resource for practitioners and other health professionals.
   

Narrative Nation Creates:
 

• We produce customized multi-media content packages.
   
• We develop messaging campaigns and collateral.
   
• We provide racial equity training, consulting and other health communication resources for health journalists. 

• We provide technical assistance to organizations or a cohort of organizations on messaging and communication tactics for addressing health disparities. 

• We fund trainings and internships for tweens and young adults to create digital storytelling and multi-media content and campaigns.

Partner with Narrative Nation today!