ABSTRACT
While storytelling has recently been reinvigorated in a range of communication contexts from marketing branding, political movement, environment sustainability, and health promotion, its application to disaster risk communication remains under-explored. To combat the traditional “information overflow” or “fatigue” in disasters, narrative accounts of people’s lived experiences can not only construct local knowledge, create shared values, but also engage people in changing attitudes, intention, and behaviour toward disaster risk reduction. Through reviewing recent literature and analysing an illustrative example of Resilient Queensland Stories, this chapter proposes a storytelling framework with “5C” guiding principles (i.e., contextual, comprehensible, compelling, conducive to action, and coherent) that is suitable for disaster risk communication. This framework contributes to enriching the existing body of knowledge through presenting a useful template of story creation and offers practical guidelines for disaster communication officers to develop potentially relevant and effective narratives to inform, educate, and empower at-risk or disaster-affected publics.
