Turkey Data, Romance Novels and How to Fix the Internet

Hey all,

OK. Who’s joining us for Proper Fancy next Thursday? Proper Fancy is a Storythings show and tell that’s open to everyone. It’s a bit like this newsletter only on Zoom. It’s a great chance for us to get to know you and for you to get to know us. So join us, we may end up working on something together in the future.

Have you got something you would like us to share with subscribers? Get in touch. Friend of Storythings, Paddy Gilmore did. He’s running Lunch and Learn session for anyone who wants to learn more about using humour in communications. Check out his Brands and Humour Substack.

Finally, are you finding that your content isn’t getting the growth you hoped? Does your strategy need a rethink? We have a bunch of workshops that might help. Hit that button above to find out more.

Right, here’s the weekend. Enjoy the links.

Hugh

Attention Matters: Discovery is Broken (6 min read)

Why Jaws and Barbie Were Such Blockbusters (12 min watch)

How to Fix the Internet (9 min read)

Mona Chalabi: “Real justice can’t be had if ‘it’s complicated’ for some of us but not for others.” (Instagram)

Content Strategy for Charities (5 min read)

The Problem With Historical Data (Tweet)

What Does Happily Ever After Look Like? (8 min read)

Hard Pills to Swallow (3 min read)

A House of Bricks (1 min read)

Short Doc Club: 12.15 (6 min watch)

How can we help you?

Storythings is a strategy and production agency based in Brighton, London, Berlin, and Ibiza. If your content marketing isn’t cutting through we'd love to help you understand why. Here are 3 reasons to get in touch. 

1. Audience Research – We help B2B brands understand modern attention patterns and how they can get more engagement with content.2. Content Strategy – We use our bespoke process to develop unique content formats that hold audience attention, build community, and increase brand salience.3. Content Production – We craft beautiful and diverse stories of impact that capture and hold attention using podcasts, videos, editorial, and newsletters. We do other things too. We're very friendly and always enjoy meeting people, so get in touch. 

Attention Matters: Discovery is BrokenIn this new series on Attention Matters, Storythings’ Matt Locke looks at three things that have changed, making it harder to get attention for your content. In the final part, he’ll examine what you can do about it. The series includes a one-question poll because we really want to find out if you agree - is content discovery broken for you too? (6 min read)

Why Jaws and Barbie Were Such Blockbusters If you are as obsessed as us with stories about what makes popular things popular, then you’ll enjoy this from Vox. It compares the strategies for the two summer blockbusters, and how Barbie got over the huge problem it faced - how do you get men into the cinema to watch a film about dolls and feminism? (12 min watch)

How to Fix the InternetA good read from Technology Review offering some optimism and solutions: “Anil Dash has been repeating the same thing over and over for years now: that people should buy their own domains, start their own blogs, own their own stuff. And sure, these fixes require a technical and financial ability that many people do not possess. But with the move to federation (which at least provides control, if not ownership) and smaller spaces, it seems possible that we’re actually going to see some of those shifts away from big-platform-mediated communication start to happen.” (9 min read)

Mona Chalabi: “Real justice can’t be had if ‘it’s complicated’ for some of us but not for others.”The data journalist and illustrator on the importance of choosing our words wisely today: “We are documenting the present for future artificial intelligence, algorithms and government policies and calculations for how many bombs to buy and where to send them to. ChatGPT, like all artificial intelligence, has been taught by us. We have a responsibility to be thoughtful about how we use our words and to think critically about the words we’re reading, even the ones presented by supposedly neutral sources.” (Instagram)

Content Strategy for CharitiesLast week I shared Lauren Pope’s 10 Things To Remember About Content Strategy. It proved to be very popular with you all so this week I thought I’d share her thoughts on content strategy for charities. I’ve found that in all my time working with charities and non-profits, a rush to make stuff often takes precedence over developing a robust content strategy. (5 min read)

The Problem With Historical DataI’ve just finished reading Clear Thinking by Farnam Street’s Shane Parish. It’s a great read about making smarter decisions. It’s full of some excellent stories like this parable about the dangers of over-interpreting historical data. (Tweet)

What Does Happily Ever After Look Like? For decades, the romance novel has been clad with scantily dressed heterosexual lovers in an immortal embrace. This was known as “the clinch”, which had its peak in the 1970s and 1980s. Over the years their covers have changed to reflect women place in society. This data story from The Pudding looks at those changes over the years in terms of the raunchiness, the diversity and the use of illustration. (8 min read)

Hard Pills to SwallowHere’s one: “At some point, you don’t need any more advice or motivational quotes or clever sayings. You just need silence and a work ethic.” Via (3 min read)

A House of BricksA wonderful short story about The Modern House, a librarian, and a rucksack full of bricks. (1 min read)

Short Doc Club: 12.15Another lovely, funny and delightfully warm find from the excellent . Everyday during lockdown, filmmaker Kate Villevoye would meet on Zoom with her friend, the 86-year-old artist and comedian Lynn Ruth Miller. Whilst many of the conversations were about covide they expanded to other themes such as old age, creativity, love and desire. (6 min watch)

We hope you've enjoyed this week's newsletter. I'm sure some of your friends would love to read it. Sharing it would be really appreciated. If you've received this from a friend, you can subscribe below and get it direct to your inbox every Friday.

Thanks for reading. We’ll see you all next week.

Hugh, Matt, Anjali and the whole team at Storythings.