UMB Collaboration With PWI Jaya Strengthens Storytelling Skills For Students

JAKARTA - Mercu Buana University (UMB) appreciates PWI Jaya's efforts to go directly to campus to transmit storytelling capabilities that become a practitioner's need to compete in the communication industry.

This was conveyed in a discussion entitled Divided Tips Writing Storytelling in Media' which is a series of awards for the 2023 MH Thamrin Journalism Award a.ias MHT Awards 2023. The awards held annually by PWI Jaya are the peak of professional and campus journalistic works.

In this activity, Dwi Wulandari (MIX Magazine Editor), Dudi Iman Hartono ( UMB Communications Sciences Lecturer) and Algooth Putranto (Lecturer of Communication Science at the Jaya Development University).

"Today's discussion is a valuable opportunity to share knowledge, experience, and creativity in using storytelling as a tool to convey messages more effectively," said Dr. Ariani Kusumo Wardhani, Deputy Chancellor for Cooperation and Student Affairs at Mercu Buana University (UMB), Monday 14 August.

Storytelling, he continued, in any context, has tremendous power to inspire, motivate, and change our views. In the world of education, storytelling has a very important role in helping educators and students convey ideas, inspire imagination, and bridge complex understandings.

On the same occasion, PWI Jakarta Chairman Sayid Iskandarsyah stated that the collaboration between the UMB campus and journalists organization is a form of link and match between the world of education and the media industry.

"We believe that the activities that PWI Jaya is doing today are a real relationship between the world of education and industry. Students learn things that happen directly in the industry, on the contrary, the industry absorbs what is studied and carried out academically," he said.

Dwi Wulandari in his presentation explained that the ability of storytelling is not only for marketers or advertisers, under current conditions, the storytelling approach can also be used by public relations (PR) practitioners to create interesting press releases, so journalists as their targets, want to make it a news material.

"The storytelling approach can also be used by journalists to create articles, so that readers are interested in reading them thoroughly, even sharing the article with their community through their social media platforms, for example," he said.

He reminded storytelling is not just a storytelling. However, it must also be able to invite audiences to respond, even engage or participate in the story. And, most of the interactions come from the relationship that has been built between the storyteller and the audience.

In line with Dwi, Algooth Putranto reminded students that returning to the root of storytelling is a fairy tale tradition that has been familiar with everyone since childhood and is unconsciously continuously developed in everyday life.

The key is to compile the story into an interesting and close to the audience's target. Use the language as simple as possible so that it is close and does not seem intimidating. For students, they must be diligent in socializing and open their eyes to the environment," he said.

According to Dudi Iman Hartono, technology makes storytelling even more aimed at transmedia storytelling, namely the narrative structure developed through two different dimensions, namely verbal and non-verbal by using media such as cinemas, comics, television, video games, and others.

"It is worth realizing that Generation Z is a very visual generation. But without reading and writing a good one, the transaction storytelling process will not be in a neat and delicious form to enjoy," he explained.

The three speakers are optimistic that the current trend of transmedia storytelling will not turn off their demands for read and write because it is the Alpha-generation trend after Gen Z justru is a generation of readers. This can be seen from the trend of improving book sales and print media operations.

"If you Gen Z just see the current trend, then you miss the opportunity for the next 10 years, the trend of the Alpha generation tends to stay away from smartphones and social media," concluded Algooth.