Storytelling Critique: TJI - Meaghan Sweeney

 TJI Justice is an organization that brings awareness to the incarceration of innocent transgender in American society. The organization’s main objective is to bring awareness and to get policies that protect Transgender Americans. In this campaign story telling is a big part of the way the campaign recruits followers and donations.  The organization’s website uses story telling in the form of videos. In these videos members of the transgender community that have been incarcerated, share their own person stories and talk about their experiences.

            The video points out the 65% of Male to Female transgender people have been in jail at some points in their life. This has to do with the fact that most transgendered people are not accepted in society accepted work places, so they have to make money illegally, which gets them in trouble with the law. The video has about 7 people talk about how they were mistreated in prison due to the fact that they were transgender.

            The use of video in this case was really effective because only a small and specific minority of people can relate to this issue, making it hard for the rest of the general public to support the change of this issue. In this case, the use of video put many faces to the story and the campaign. Hearing people talk about their personal experiences puts the campaign into perspective, making it clear that real people are being affected by this issue. The use of video and personal stories played on people’s emotions to get people to join the movement and donate.  Using text or pictures in this specific case might not have been as effective because there could have been a disconnect without the ability to put a story to a human face. There was a strong emphasis on emotional appeal through this form of storytelling which can be beneficial in a case like this.

            Within the videos there are perspectives from many different people all speaking for themselves. The use of multiple personal stories as a way to drive people towards the same cause can show the public that there is a really need for this cause and that multiple people are being affected by this issue. The use of personal story telling makes the circumstances more realistic, showing people that the faces of the movement are real living people who all have different experiences.  If the narration style was different this form of storytelling would not be as effective due to the hard use of emotional appeal to attempt to rally a crowd.

            In this particular story telling video each person sharing their experience was made out to look like the victim, to make the audience feel sorry for those being affected. The hero scenario in this specific situation would not be as effective because it would nit motivate people to take action if this specific community could just “save” themselves. The use of the victim role is a very effective way to engage people and show them that this is a cause that is worth taking part in. it may also motivate people to engage because they can feel as though they are in a position of empowerment over those being affected, and they should help those who cannot help themselves.

            Overall, the story impacts the campaign in a positive way.  It gives the campaign the emotional appeal, while also informing people of ways in which this issue is a reality to a huge community of people. The use of video footage humanizes people telling their stories and the use of statistics and numbers used in the video puts into perspective the amount of people this particular issue is affecting.