What can I say? It is the brand marker of TV channel AMC. No wonder people find it frustrating when we try and suggest that storytelling is a word particular to the oral telling of tales...
Also interesting, as I think about how that is very different to a lot of other channel brands (for example the news channels that focus on facts)), and how I am in the middle of writing an Independent Study paper which is winding up suggesting that for all the rhetoric about the importance of story within the storytelling revival, the experience that audiences at most of the festivals are seeking is not actually the journey of the story - that is often just a convenient frame for other types of entertainment. Sometimes this is intentional on the part of the teller, sometimes it isn't.
I'm afraid I haven't had the time to review AMC's programming and see whether I think they are justified in their claim
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Kat - for a long time now I have argued with colleagues that the storytelling emphasis on story is misplaced. If all our storytellers disappeared tomorrow the world would still have plenty of stories. The real emphasis should be on telling. That is the action and the function of the storyteller. I think the act of telling is what needs greater consideration. To Tell should mean more than simply To Report - it involves discernment and discovery. The telling of stories is more than mere reporting. You are right that the experience seems to be about more than (other than) the story. What is the telling experience? What is the meta-messaging going on at our various storytelling events? Does it involve group cohesion? Status and ranking behaviors? Tribal identity? Etc??
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