At a time when audiences are overwhelmed by endless streams of contents competing for attention, Prof. of Applied Media, Film, and Theatre Studies, Federal University Otuoke, Bayelsa State, Osakue Omoera, has stressed need for journalists and content creators to create compelling narratives that connect, endures and travel beyond time and space.

He stated this in his recent keynote address at Intercontinental Distillers Symposium on storytelling. The event was held in partnership with Centre for Media and Communication Research (CMCR), School of Media and Communication, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos.

To the don, the challenge is no longer creating contents, but producing strategic storytelling that speak to care, dignity, loss, courage, longing and identity.

Saying the word’s most powerful stories never abandon their identity, Omoera, who is also the President Film Educators Guild of Nigeria (FEGON) added in a crowded marketplace, it is not the quantity of content, but the quality that makes the difference.

To him, great stories make audiences recognise themselves adding, “the stories that we remember are the ones that make us feel human. Human truth is at the heart of any story worth telling.”

Long before cinema, broadcasting, advertising, internet, the don observed storytelling has carried the nation’s values, warning, jokes, griefs, victories, anxieties, family sagas, communal histories and identities.

Noting the country’s cities and towns are made up of stories, he added journalists can also interrogate issues around character, context and conflict. He insisted there is no story without character, adding there is no setting without context and there is no show without conflict.

In every story telling, he suggested, “our greatest competitive advantage is Nigeria. We should explore local relevance. Our local realities are critical and they can be carved in form of stories and sold to the world.”

Speaking further, he also advocated indigenous storytelling as strategic assets. To him, “every language carries a culture and every culture carries a story. Language is more than communication.

It is a living archive of culture. Humour, philosophy, relationships and reverence are all stored in language.

“Nigeria should take the centre stage in story telling. We must produce contents, create memory, influence brands. Journalists must tell stories that make us feel understood, heard, uplifted and connected,”he advised.