SECTION C
Definitions
You may want to include definitions so your stakeholders clearly understand your EDMF.
Example
Content gatherer
Someone who documents a contributor’s story via photographs, videos, oral interviews and written testimony.
Content
What stories are made of. Content can include copy, images, sound, video and data.
Contributor
Someone who shares their storytelling content with an organisation that intends to publish their content. In the context of not-for-profit organisations, contributors are usually program participants, staff, volunteers and members.
Copy
Written words and numbers.
Cultural norms
Informal understandings of group conduct that govern the behaviour of members of a society.
Dignity
The feeling of having decision-making power, freedom and autonomy over life choices, together with the feeling of self-worth and self-confidence, and feeling that one has the respect of others.
Empowerment
Authority or power given to someone to do something.
Ethical decision-making framework
A structured series of questions and issues for consideration that help people make choices when they are faced with situations that require value judgements.
Ethical dilemma
A situation that has no clear right or wrong answer.
Images
Two-dimensional visual representations. Images include ‘still’ images such as photographs, artworks and illustrations, and ‘moving’ images such as videos, animations and GIFs.
Informed consent
When a contributor grants permission to publish their story with full knowledge of the possible consequences, including possible risks and benefits. Informed consent must be granted without duress.
Privacy
A person’s right to control access to their information and identity.
Publisher
A person or organisation that publishes stories using methods such as print, websites, social media, press releases etc.
Respect
Due regard for the feelings, wishes or rights of others.
Story
A story can include written, visual, verbal and data elements. These elements can exist alone or in a combination with other story elements.
Storytelling
The act of sharing stories.
Vicarious trauma
The inner transformation that occurs in the inner experience of the therapist [or other professional] that comes about as a result of empathic engagement with clients’ trauma material. (Pearlman and Saakvitne, 1995)