Digital Storytelling and the Role of Meta-Orators in Institutional Listening

Listening to personal stories in health-related institutions is widely recognized as a challenging and potentially discomforting activity that often requires courage and resilience on the part of the listener. Through a series of international case studies of the ways stories are being listened to in health and social policy settings, and engagement with current listening literature, we identified four key “meta-oratory” roles at work in promoting and supporting listening in institutional health contexts: curator, host, caretaker, and broker. We refer to these roles as meta-oratory due to the often profound effects they can have on how stories are listened to, received, and applied (or not) in health settings. In this article we offer a complex view of listening in institutions and query the ways that existing meta-oratory role holders can support active, applied, and potentially transformative listening for health.