Table 2.

A rhetorical matrix for empirical analysis of narrative mechanisms and potential for change (evaluation toolkit), based on Gesser-Edelsburg and Singhal (2013) [19].

Narrative mechanism	Rhetorical concerns	Empirical questions to gauge a narrative’s potential for change
Dialogue (between the narrative and the public)	How do the produced messages and dialogue engage with the public’s predisposed realities?	In processing the narrative, to what extent did the public feel They were invited or coerced into a dialogue about coping with the challenges? The messages were consensual or oppositional to their predispositions? New possibilities for coping were raised in the narrative?
Involvement (the public’s emotional engagement with the narrative)	How is the public emotionally involved, immersed, or absorbed in the unfolding narrative?	In processing the narrative, to what extent did the public experience Feelings of voyeurism, empathic identification, alienation, or anger? Identification with certain characters, and how did that influence their perceptions and positions on the issues the characters represented?
Trust (public’s perceptions of the narrative’s credibility)	How does the public perceive the plausibility, realism, and veracity of the unfolding narrative? Is the narrative trustworthy? Credible?	In processing the narrative, to what extent did the public feel the narrative was credible? Realistic? Plausible? At what stage did the public begin to experience clarification of doubts and new emergent possibilities? What conditions facilitated this change?
Catharsis and transformation (narrative’s influence on the public)	How does public engagement with the narrative lead to new learning, alternative positions, and change possibilities? How does the modeling and reinforcement of change through characters increase audience motivation and self-efficacy for practice?	In processing the narrative, to what extent did the public feel They identified with the transformation of characters in the unfolding story? They went through a process of change parallel to the transformed characters? They were engaged and empowered by the characters and their story? The alternatives presented in the narratives are applicable to the reality of their behavior?