Making Believe
8 Apr 2010
Tonight’s talk is about how the human instinct towards storytelling is being used and subverted – how narrative arcs and the idea of an inevitable ending can lead us to buy things we don’t need, trust politicians we don’t know and believe in WMDs that don’t exist.
The lead speaker is Christian Salmon, author of new book Storytelling: Bewitching the Modern Mind . Salmon explores how marketing and PR narratives seek to define our perception of everything from Ben & Jerry’s to Barack Obama, and moves on to look at how online networking and blogging have amplified our tendencies to contrive our own life stories. He is joined by speakers including Julia Hobsbawm, founder of media analysis and networking firm Editorial Intelligence and pioneer of ‘integrity PR’, and Neil Boorman, author of Bonfire of the Brands. The talk is chaired by ICA director Ekow Eshun.