The Speed of Trust: Accelerating narrative change through rapid response in pop culture

“At the Speed of Trust: Five ways to strengthen our narrative rapid response power” (Medium) by Erin Potts and Tracy Van Slyke

“Rapid response work is a critical part of transforming the narrative and cultural waters we swim in everyday. And while our work goes hand in hand with strategic communications, the pop culture for social change field has a specialized role to play in connecting immediate storytelling to the formation of people’s beliefs and behaviors and to a long-term narrative vision for our country. But for every rapid response moment that we are able to activate quickly, there are dozens we can’t seize…

What’s holding us back? In addition to pure exhaustion, every rapid response possibility requires background infrastructure: relationships, audience research, shared narrative strategy, distribution channels, and more. Almost every rapid response moment finds our field reinventing that infrastructure from scratch.

Which leads to the question: What support and infrastructure does the pop culture for social change field need to be ready for rapid response moments?”