On day one of Narrative Power Summit 2025, ReFrame Executive Director hermelinda cortés opened with a charge to the field — a grounding in grief, strategy, and the responsibility of narrative work in a time of rising authoritarianism.
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If 2024 taught us anything, it’s that the stories we tell in moments of grief, nostalgia, and resistance don’t just reflect our reality—they transform it.
If 2024 taught us anything, it's that grief does not derail the work of transformation — it centers it. This year, collective grief emerged not only in the tragedies that called for mourning but in the ways we clung to nostalgia, wrestled with authenticity and our longing for connection through stories. As we prepare to release our 2025 Narrative Predictions Report, we reflect on the stories that defined 2024, weaving a narrative about who we are and who we might become.
The murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO placed unprocessed grief and righteous anger squarely in public view. It revealed the contradictions in a healthcare system that claims to provide care but instead delivers indifference—forcing people to navigate crises without real support. Outrage surged immediately, but like so many moments of collective trauma, it risked fading into nihilism and disconnection. The Atlantic described the shooting as emblematic of polarized apathy, revealing a collective inability to sustain the energy needed for systemic change.
Yet something powerful emerged. Meme culture acted as both a release valve and a rallying cry, showing how solidarity and apathy can coexist in the same space. As Malkia Devich-Cyril writes in Grief Belongs in Social Movements, "Grief is not just the work we must do; it's the ground we must build from." This moment and the conversations it sparked remind us that when named and channeled, grief can move people together and transform fleeting outrage into collective action.
Reflecting on grief and resistance also recalls themes from our Signals in the Noise: Election Edition series, mainly our November 19th blog, where we examined how media narratives magnify moments of crisis. These reflections underscore how strategically channeled grief can shape collective action rather than sow division.
We've explored nostalgia and its connection to resilience in "Vertigo Variations," our Narrative Predictions for 2024; we anticipated how cultural memory would become a critical tool for navigating societal upheaval, and we were right. Nostalgia, as we've seen, not only comforts but also empowers communities to reclaim agency. Charlie XCX's unexpected comeback album, BRAT, redefined a generation's connection to identity and memory. The cinematic debut of Wicked reimagined a beloved story for a new audience, proving that the past can serve as both an anchor and a starting point to hold space for reinvention. These moments did more than revisit old favorites—they created stability through stories and messages that remind us of who we are.
Drake's ongoing "Drake vs. Everyone" saga plays up on a different type of nostalgia — rap beef. The drama underscored a growing skepticism toward celebrity culture and revealed how fragmented fame mirrors societal tensions surrounding identity, power and authenticity. More importantly, it showcased how decentralized narratives emerging from online discourse can redefine the relevance of public figures and the broader social imagination. This shift matters because it forces us to confront who holds cultural power and how collective attention is mobilized (or not).
While nostalgia grounded us, technology disrupted us. AI-generated music, immersive video games and AI-written scripts blurred the boundaries of authorship and authenticity, sparking debates over creativity's future.
At the same time, Caitlin Breedlove's memoir, All In: Cancer, Near Death, New Life, offered a poignant counterpoint, reminding us that authenticity is deeply personal, rooted in lived experiences and relationships. Her reflections resonate as a call to center humanity in our stories as algorithms increasingly challenge the equity of narrative creation. These themes echoed insights from our Signals in the Noise: Election Edition series, which explored power dynamics around storytelling and platform control. Breedlove's words, "What survived was my love, not just for life but for all that brought me here," offer a reminder to safeguard connection as we shape stories in this new era.
In 2024, the media ecosystem revealed its power to shape public consciousness, from Trump’s headline-grabbing interview with Joe Rogan to the growing amplification of fear-based narratives under the guise of “free speech.” These moments highlight how dominant forces manipulate narrative terrain to manufacture fear, belonging, and control—reminding us that narratives are never neutral.
For a counterpoint, ReFrame’s Executive Director hermelinda cortés breaks it down on Convergence Magazine’s Block & Build podcast. “Trump didn’t just win on the doors—he won on the fanfare of an air war,” Hermelinda explains, urging movements to build long-term narrative infrastructure that responds to chaos with clarity. She challenges us to go beyond storytelling and instead reshape the ideological terrain where beliefs take hold. 🎧 Listen to the full interview here.
In our 2023 Narrative Predictions, we anticipated that identity would remain a critical battleground in 2024's societal narratives. This foresight is evident in the recent political landscape, where transgender rights have become central to cultural and legislative debates. The 2024 elections highlighted both progress and backlash, with trans existence framed as either a political wedge or a site of liberation, naming storytelling's role in advancing and resisting anti-trans narratives. Jen Soriano's Nervous: Essays on Heritage and Healing underscores how stories rooted in trauma can become tools for healing and resistance because "Healing is not linear; it is circular and collective." highlighting the transformative power of shared narratives. Our accurate forecast underscores the importance of understanding identity's role in societal discourse and prepares us to navigate the ongoing intersection of identity and resistance in cultural and political arenas.
2024 felt overwhelming because it was. Still, it also offered possibilities, reminding us that nothing is permanent. Narratives evolve, collide and shape our world, and there's always an opportunity to widen or change the conversation. Grief, nostalgia, authenticity and resistance defined 2024 and will continue well into 2025. The work ahead is not just about telling more exciting, complex and compelling stories—it's about influencing the ones that shape us at scale. As we release our 2025 Narrative Predictions, we invite you to reflect on the stories that carried us here and imagine the ones we can create together.
Stay tuned for the full report, and let's craft a narrative future grounded in justice, resilience, and collective power-building.
“Narrative power isn’t just about storytelling—it’s about shaping the terrain of ideology, worldview, and meaning.” hermelinda cortés, ReFrame's Executive Director, talks to Cayden Mak (Convergence Magazine) about Building Meaning, Belonging, and Safety
In a recent Block & Build episode, ReFrame’s Executive Director hermelinda cortés chats with Convergence Mag's Publisher Cayden Makdives about what narrative power really means for movements fighting to win. If you’re thinking about “narrative” as just a series of stories or good talking points, hermelinda is here to challenge you.
hermelinda reminds us that we’re swimming in narrative conditions—an invisible yet powerful force shaping people’s beliefs, ideas, and behaviors. Social movements that only focus on tactics like messaging or storytelling risk missing the forest for the trees. Instead, she argues, we need to think long-term and strategically about narrative power and its connection to organizing, governing, and meaning-making.
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So what does that look like?
hermelinda explains that building narrative power means responding to the rapid, braided interplay of broadcast media, social media, and micro-conversations across networks. It’s not just about amplifying what we say—it’s about understanding how ideas move, who they reach, and why they resonate.
And it’s not just about belonging—it’s about safety. As hermelinda names in the episode, “Our opposition doesn’t just create belonging; they manufacture fear and offer themselves as the safe haven. What they’re selling is safety.”
As we face escalating crises—climate disasters, attacks on trans communities, and the dismantling of social safety nets—movements need rapid-response infrastructure not just to meet physical needs but to sow and set the narrative in moments of chaos.
This is the hard, necessary work ahead: to win people’s trust, to confront fear with clarity, and to mobilize narrative power for liberation.
This year Team ReFrame hosted Narrative Salons and strategy spaces. Read on to learn why we did it and how it went.
ReFrame aims to develop the next generation of narrative strategists by connecting and supporting our network of organizers and communicators. We regularly receive requests for collaborative spaces to reflect and strategize, and we continually create diverse opportunities for engagement within our network.
This spring, ReFrame held four public Narrative Salons to test the impact of informal yet rigorous strategy conversations on key narratives. Designed to be accessible and recurring, these salons aimed to engage a wide range of practitioners across various issues and geographies..
Due to the highly fragmented legacy media and social media environment, it is difficult for practitioners to easily understand what is actually moving different audiences across the narrative landscape. Our individual and organizational algorithms tell us an incomplete story, and paint an inconsistent, selective and distorted view of conversations and perspectives. Given this, we spent three of the Salons focused on collectively developing a better understanding of the narrative landscape related to climate, democracy and immigration. We also monitored and discussed conversations about demands for a ceasefire and the Palestine solidarity encampments across college campuses this spring.
ReFrame’s narrative research, also known as the Weather Station, utilizes tools that scrape and aggregate data across all media types and social platforms over time so that organizers and communicators can anticipate openings, risks and opportunities to contend for narrative power more successfully. Up until recently, Weather Station technology and ‘social listening’ have primarily been leveraged by PR and marketing firms, corporate interests and different factions of the right wing. ReFrame is able to utilize this technology for the benefit of our movements by tracking stories, perspectives and narratives across ideology.
Our three focus areas drew interest from all corners of our network and the world - attorneys fighting against transphobia, housing justice organizers, youth activists fighting criminalization, culture workers and land-based spiritualists across the Americas, Europe and Africa, to name a few. The diversity of attendees across issue areas, geography, audience and more spoke to the potential of a shared strategy that contends for narrative dominance across issues, constituencies and fronts.
We also (re)learned important lessons about the limitations of drop-in, virtual, narrative spaces. Proactive long-term narrative strategy cannot be developed in a 60-minute virtual drop-in space. So, while we received positive feedback, we also grappled with the limits of a public, open and unvetted space. Discerning and prioritizing the various critical needs of our movement with our limited resources as an organization continues to be difficult and of the utmost importance.
Our approach for the 2024 election season was informed by our pilot 2020 Florida Command Center as well as our lessons and best practices from the Narrative Salons. ReFrame’s 2024 Signals In the Noise Election Edition blog was paired with a live Strategy Clinic. Together, they delivered real-time narrative insights, supported strategic planning and created collaborative spaces to traverse the dynamic landscape across issues and audiences and support narrative change strategies of movement leaders and institutions. While content banks and messaging guides are branded as a method to support the field during this election season, one-size-fits-all tactical tools are insufficient. Rather than pushing top-down recommendations, our innovative offering gives strategists and organizers a bird’s eye view of things unfolding in the narrative landscape, focusing on dominant and contending narratives. Our weekly insights incorporate narrative research and accompaniment to surface strategic insights in a space where leaders from across regions and issues can workshop with top narrative analysts and strategists to respond quickly to emerging opportunities and threats.
Leading up to and for six weeks following the election, ReFrame curated an in-network space for practitioners to gather and reflect on the most salient narrative fronts of the season. Demos of our Weather Station, accompanied by weekly narrative synthesis in blog form, delivered a line-up of what to look out for each week. Data and accompanying analysis were paired with a robust conversation featuring narrative and movement thought leaders during our live clinic. By preparing topline insights, paired with open time for practitioners to ask questions and check hunches, we were able to leverage the Weather Station to provide insights that mattered most to attendees. Themes discussed included: the cost of living, blame game discourse, the fallacy of democracy as a winning frame, mis-and disinformation, transphobia, immigration, split ticket and up-ballot voting, and so much more.
Our clinics saw 300 attendees across all fifty states. Like the Salons, attendees work across issue areas, geography and audience. Additionally, our clinics remained responsive to the swiftly changing landscape. We polled attendees to learn more about their shifting environment and needs and subsequently delivered research on Black men and Latine voters as a wedge demographic, dominant messages and narratives about the role of government post-election, third-party voters and more.
As we prepare for Trump 2.0, spaces like these with a more concentrated strategic narrative focus (i.e., folks running specific campaigns or interventions) and open forums for cross-movement communicators and organizers to strategize together are key. We must defend our precious existing narrative infrastructure and expand and proliferate it to move our messages into every nook, cranny and corner of this country and beyond. We know that the election results in 2024 were not a bellwether that the country has moved right, but rather that the left, progressives and the democratic party have ceded far too much territory to right wing forces. Building a legible and credible vision, elevating solutions (from the ground up) to some of our most pressing crises, and creating more avenues to disseminate our narratives and contend for narrative dominance will be paramount. We know our people are worth fighting for.
In 2024, ReFrame partnered with the Million Voters Project (MVP) and Power California (PowerCA) on a six-month, cutting-edge, field-defining narrative power program to accelerate narrative change from the ground up. MVP is a statewide formation of local, regional and statewide power building organizations in California, leveraging the power of organizing, integrated voter engagement (IVE) and narrative to advance their long term agenda. This program, titled Echos Academy, was rooted in MVP’s long-term agenda, narrative stepping stones and framework of narrative infrastructure, as well as ReFrame’s approach to building ecosystems of narrative power that center organizing, led by impacted communities, to expand the public notion of what is possible. While the term narrative has gained prevalence in social movement and power-building spaces over the years, ReFrame programming supported deepening understanding and practical application of narrative strategies along and inside of broader power-building strategies.
“Prior to this program, I feel like internally, when we spoke about narrative work, it seemed very abstract.But through the experiment and putting that into practice and creating tangible things. It created an example of what narrative work could and should be in our organization and with others. So I think throughout this program, it's really showed us how we can do this work in a less abstract way.” - Jay Chotirmal, CAUSE
ReFrame’s objective was to design all facets of the Academy and to train a cohort of 50 principals and practitioners from 20 MVP organizations through both 101 and 201 level modules. We kicked the program off with an in-person bootcamp in Costa Mesa, CA and then took it virtual, hosting weekly trainings on narrative strategy fundamentals such as audience segmentation, combatting mis-and disinformation and narrative landscaping. The real heart of Echos Academy lay in the narrative experiments, in which the cohort designed and led individual and collaborative projects aimed at advancing MVP’s narrative stepping stones and 2024 policy agenda utilizing the strategic and tactical skills learned in the Academy.
We tapped various parts of the ReFrame infrastructure to support this program. Long-time ReFrame comrades Janna Zinzi, Nina Smith, Chelsea Fuller and Jamila Aisha Brown stepped into coaching roles for the cohort and provided tremendous support to participants. And, our research team brought in our weather station and assembled IRL case studies to demonstrate narrative change in the immediate and over time. The Academy closed in November with overwhelming positive feedback, demonstrating the power and importance of investment in narrative infrastructure, particularly for grassroots, base building organizations.
“Reflecting back to early 2023, and then all of 2023, there was a deep desire to build narrative power without necessarily knowing how. There wasn't capacity to do it alone, especially when our teams are already small. And so, having this space where we could build relationships, support each other, lean on each other, share narrative best practices, divide the work, and build on each other's resources, was just so helpful “ - Rita Gabriela Marquez, California Calls
“We were doing it already, but didn't know it, and we needed the language and framing” - Akil Bell, Black Women for Wellness
What does the success of Echos tell us about the future of narrative power? The future of narrative power rests with more programs like Echos, and more investment in formations like MVP. Programs like the Echos Academy work to aggregate and amplify the numbers, demands, stories, and narratives of coalitions and grassroots groups. Their partnership with ReFrame ensured that narrative and communications practitioners across the state of California not only had a shared language and framework around what narrative is or isn’t, but were able to put their lessons learned into practical application. As a result of Echos, 20 MVP partner organizations are now in deeper coordination with each other, advancing unified stories and shared narratives as part of regional and statewide power-building strategies. In these times, where progressive ideas, issues and narratives are being shellacked, wielding our narrative power is a clear path forward.
Blame game hot takes, economic fears, and narratives about “shadow governments”—the election may be over, but the discourse is just getting started.
We’re back this week with another Signals in the Noise: Election Edition! Team ReFrame continues to monitor the post-election contours of the narrative ecosystem, where coverage continues to be informed by the blame game’s hot takes and takedowns. This edition focuses on content from November 10th to the 17th, though we go back in time to check our hunches and biases.
Here’s the TL;DR
From November 1st to the 17th, conversations about democracy were much lower than conversations about the elections (1.2 million mentions versus 20.4 million mentions). Compared to the same date range in 2022, mentions of democracy are down 81%, a drastic drop in volume. Compared to pop culture trends like “brat summer” (753k mentions) or “Project 2025” (18.3 million mentions), this drop in volume suggests that frames around protecting and saving democracy did not stick or saturate as much as they had in previous election cycles.
While the spike for democracy on November 6th at 208k mentions focused on the Democrats’ betrayal of the working class and their leaders’ waning influence, stories from November 11th to the 17th focus on the ways members of the Democratic party are gearing up to resist Trump’s policies and the threat they pose to “the rule of law.” Potential standoffs set the stage for weeks of unease, especially as the right-wing media ecosystem and MAGA loyalists call this tactic the formation of a shadow government or an insurrection, which is… ironic. These claims continue election stories about election integrity as votes are still being counted and verified in battleground states like Pennsylvania and Arizona. Expect law and order and safety and security narratives to be weaponized to crush dissent, regardless of who is at the front lines of the picket or protest. We can also expect these same narratives to be weaponized against organizations in the attempts to criminalize solidarity with Palestine, fast-tracking legislation to revoke non-profits and NGOs of their 501c3 status.
We track content and conversations about Trump’s picks like it’s the NFL draft. Here are some messages and narratives about the role of government in the post-election discourse:
This week, discussions about the economy and governance are high in volume in relation to The Onion hilariously buying InfoWars and concerns about the economy's future under austerity measures, cronyism, crypto and billionaire pump-and-dump schemes. In spikes about the economy and the cost of living, trending stories and conversations focus on the cost of food and inflation under the Trump administration, highlighting that his economic policies will be a net negative for poor and working class people. While some content and conversations focus on the current administration’s choice of wartime spending over the American people, we note the beginning of attacks on social safety nets like SNAP. Right now these conversations are mostly happening on X and are being leveraged by conservatives and economists. We believe there is a risk that social/government programs will come under fire through racialized disinformation (think wokeness or DEI), values of respectability, and narratives about capitalism, the deserving versus the undeserving, protecting children, and the weaponization of public health and safety. These same values and narratives are playing out in trends and pop culture as popularized in retorts like “just put the fries in the bag, bro,” or “I don’t know what this means, I’m employed,” both of which, at their core, are classist. All of this may help manufacture consent to a range of legislative measures, including stricter guidelines on food stamps and gutting the budget for temporary assistance programs like TANF.
Discussions about swearing off men, popularized in South Korea as the 4B movement, skyrocketed post-election day in response to the potential federal crackdown on women’s rights and Nick Fuentes’ misogynistic “your body, my choice” tirade. 4B is shorthand for the word “no” in Korean and is a protest against violence against women where they opt to revoke their labor from cisgender men, including sex, dating, marriage and childbearing. Young women lead the content and share of voice on Instagram and TikTok. Their content about the “sex strike” features right-wing influencers’ satirical content using narratives rooted in traditional femininity and desirability politics. However, conversations led by South Korean women and leftists in the U.S. are discussing 4B in the U.S. from a different angle, educating their followers on the fact that the movement has a transphobia problem. Within these conversations, there is an outsized focus on bodily autonomy, intimate partner violence (IPV), and the need for community between women and femmes, suggesting there is an opportunity to organize loudspeakers in long-term shared strategy around reproductive rights and freedoms and activate IRL spaces to provide opportunities for cisgender and trans women to organize in and solidarity. As we’ve already clocked, there is a risk that networks of trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs) and sex worker exclusionary radical feminists (SWERFs) will use this as an opportunity to masquerade their gender essentialist anti-trans ideology under the umbrella of 4B content to recruit liberal women (it’s already happening).
We’re rocking with some nuanced post-election hot takes about voting blocs. For Prism, Rann Miller discusses how Black men were scapegoated through the election, while Briana Ureña-Ravelo asks (and answers) questions about the Latine vote. Meanwhile, Julian Rose writes about what “the Left” gets wrong about the South for Scalawag Magazine. Before you dive in, grab a pen, paper, cup of tea and get comfy.
In the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, mutual aid groups have not just stepped up to help their neighbors but have also found themselves on the frontlines of disinformation inoculation efforts. Read about the ways these groups promote narratives that demand good governance and structural change to address extreme weather events and shore up the infrastructure needed to prevent disaster.
November 18th honors the Battle of Vertières, a vital fight in Haiti’s liberation struggle. We welcome you to listen to Ayiti Pou Ayiti’s rendering of a battle song of the Haitian Revolution (it’s a protest anthem, too!), reminding us just how sacred archiving stories, photos, songs and chants are to keeping our radical traditions alive.
The narratives swirling around us right now are potent, messy, and constantly shifting—and that’s exactly why we need to make sense of them, together.
Signals in the Noise: Election Edition analyzed the narratives leading up to the 2024 election, focusing on economic issues, immigration, voting rights, race and gender justice. ReFrame’s analysis showed how narrative transcends ideology, taking on different meanings across audiences to shape online discourse. These narratives and the stories and messages that funnel them influenced voter behavior and perceptions of the role of government and governance, policies, candidates and their campaign promises. The mood and tone in election conversations were agitational, authoritative, urgent, concerned, informative, hopeful and empowering. Core values included equity, accountability, compassion, justice, empowerment, autonomy, integrity, community, safety and security.
The media ecosystem moves at a mile a minute, creating a complex narrative terrain where millions of stories and messages intersect and overlap. Some narrative battles challenge people’s core (and sometimes contradictory) beliefs and values; narrative battles allow us to combat harmful stories and messages and determine where and how to pick narrative fights on our terms.
Corporate interests and the needs of the working class clashed in narrative battles over which candidate was better for the economy. These stories and messages highlighted contrasting approaches to economic issues, like inflation or housing, and reflected differences in beliefs and values about class and equity.
Throughout the election season, narratives questioning election integrity and security circulated at the same volume as positive content about GOTV. The right reversed its earlier disapproval of early and mail-in voting and instead pushed messaging urging unity for its preferred candidate.
Demands for a ceasefire and an arms embargo on Israel were permanent fixtures in stories and conversations about the election, from protest voting to post-election blame game discourse.
Mis-and disinformation fueled distrust in electoral processes and led to fears around election day violence and voter intimidation.
Xenophobic depictions of immigrants as threats clashed with scarcity narratives and tensions about resource allocation. These stories, messages and conversations scapegoated immigrants throughout the election cycle.
There was a recognition of Black voting power from both political parties and legacy media, but it bordered on reliance on outdated stereotypes, tokenization and exploitation.
“States rights,” bioessentialism, disinformation and harmful discourse challenged reproductive rights and trans rights across election conversations.
Scarcity narratives demonizing queer and trans people created a wedge between liberal women and the trans community on bodily autonomy.
We understand the narrative landscape as an uneven playing field. In these narrative battles, harmful narratives could deepen societal divides, perpetuate injustice and erode trust in democratic processes. As we prepare for a second Trump administration, it is clear movement strategists, organizers and allied formations must:
Pool our resources, minimize our tactical squabbling and build our narrative infrastructure.
Invest the time and capacity together, especially around the economy, democracy and the role of government, to answer some of the vital narrative questions of our time. What narratives are we working to seed, especially around the economy, democracy, the role of government and safety?
Expand our reach far beyond our bases and inner circles.
Tell better stories: name the enemy, offer compelling alternatives and use plain language to meet folks where they are.
We will need fortified organizers, communicators, influencers and practitioners for the long haul, and that requires our sustained vision, collective power, and unyielding determination. We must fortify our numbers and grow movement communications and narrative infrastructure for the long haul.
These stories, messages and narratives we have elevated will endure through the end of this year, into 2025 and beyond. Team ReFrame will be there every step of the way rigorously assessing the data, staying steadfast and visionary in our interventions and continuing to build the narrative north stars we need.
