Diana And the Power of a Story
After Watching last night’s Channel 4 documentary, Diana: the Witnesses in the Tunnel, I was struck by the power of story telling in getting a message, true or otherwise, deeply embedded in the public psyche.
Legend holds that Diana, Princess of Wales, was hounded to death by paparazzi photographers. The car in which she was traveling through Paris almost ten years ago, careered out of control with snappers in close pursuit. The greedy photographers not only failed to help her, but impeded the rescue services while they flashed away at the gruesome crash scene.
The story was put out by the French police almost as soon as the crash had happened, it was repeated in news reports, and wrapped up in bitter accusations by Mohamed al Fayed and Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer. It has gripped the public imagination ever since.
The plot has the perfect symmetry of a morality tale. The most photographed woman in the world was murdered by photographers. In her brother’s words, a girl named after Diana the huntress became the most hunted woman in the world.
But as it happens, it wasn’t true.
The first photographer (and the first person) on the scene was qualified in First Aid and started to help her. Next on the scene was a doctor. The press pack only arrived minutes later. They snapped away, but did not get in the way. None the less, the police confiscated their pictures and arrested the photographers.
But the power of a perfectly structured narrative is so convincing that it is hard not to believe it. If you want to get a message deep into people’s minds, do it with a story. And blogs and podcasts are the perfect media to unravel that story day by day.
