When I first saw that this video was assigned, I was curious because I had seen it before in a very different context. At some point early in the semester of my freshman year we watched this TED talk at a class gathering to think about how we understand one another. After rewatching it in the context of IMA, I see the TED talk also a call to action to creators of all types of media to be mindful of the stories they spin. Even when you yourself can only create a single story, you can create one that deviates from the usual single story and that tells another side of a truth. Hand in hand with our previous discussion about influence, it is easy for anyone creating media to create a story in the likeness of one that has already been told. A single story about Africa gets retold in part because the creators of new media base their story on the single story they heard before, and so the stereotypes propagate. The fact that her professor said her book was not “authentically African” also goes to show that when a new story is told in contrast to the usual single story, the audience might question it. It is tempting to choose to retell the single story that is already accepted and appreciated by the general audience, but it is more important– even the duty of media makers–to tell a story based on the truth they see, even when it may not resonate as well with the audience’s expectations. The reason these single stories are dangerous is not just because they don’t tell the whole truth, but also because they take away power and agency from their subjects and the audience of these stories ceases to see them fully as people.