Abstract
A fundamental and effective way of human communication is narratives. It is believed that narratives help central banks communicate with their stakeholders easily. Central banks have started to make use of narratives in their communications for accountability concerns and policy decision announcements. Central banks should make use of narratives to meet the public's and the markets' expectations. To improve the quality and effectiveness of central banks' communications, a focused and coherent narrative would be an important asset to help make the ambiguous and technical nature of macroprudential policy more precise and meaningful. This paper aims to show that to what extent narratives have been being used in communication activities by central banks. In this scope, a literature review will be made to identify narrative uses by central banks and a connection will be tried to be established between narratives and central bank communication to show how significant roles narratives can play in central bank communication.
TopBackground
There has been a great amount of interest in and discussion about the nature of narrative possibly due to the fact that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have become increasingly important to societies, organizations, and individuals. Narrative can also be considered as a basic form of human expression (Hazel, 2008, p.1). Matti Hyvarinen provides two slightly different definitions of narrative by making references to Barbara Herrnstein Smith (1981) and James Phelan (2005), namely, “Someone telling someone else that something happened” and “Somebody telling somebody else on some occasion and for some purpose(s) that something happened” (Hyvarinen, 2007, p.448). According to Marie-Laure Ryan, narrative is about problem solving, conflict, interpersonal relations, human experience, and the temporality of existence (Ryan, 2007, p.23-24).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Narrative: An effective way of relaying information to the intended audiences.
Transparency: A state of being open, being open to communication and not hiding behind secrecy.
Openness: Being able to be receptive to anything new.
Accountability: A state that someone is being able to be fully responsible for the actions he/she has done.
Cacophony: A confusing and an undesirable condition arising from too many contradictory voices. Independence: A state of being free from influence and control of others.
Secrecy: A state of hiding information from those who shouldn’t know.