A storyteller is either a storyteller or a spinner, the difference being that the storyteller will keep the truth in sight, while a spinner will not be bound by the truth. Before the miracle of Internet communications, and especially before towns had a newspaper publisher, the news was spread by storytellers who used to stand on the corners of the streets where most people went to go to work or buy food and other goods.

The storyteller made his living telling interesting stories. Maybe someone would throw a coin in your hat or a carrot in your box if the story was good or the information in it was useful. If he didn’t get a coin or a carrot, the skilled accountant would move to a different corner where a different audience might be kinder to him. Storytellers probably evolved from bards or minstrels.

A bard was a poet. He recited traditional stories of fame or disgrace. Charles Dickens’s Christmas story would be an example of the kind of story he could tell. Again, if he’s lively and interesting, he might eat something after the narration. A minstrel put music to his stories. Today’s musicals have their first beginnings in the minstrels. Any of these communicators could be used directly by powerful people who had political ambitions or by vain people who had the money to use them.

In the movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, Sir Robin employed a minstrel who followed him around and sang about his heroics. Apparently, Sir Robin did not pay his minstrel well, because the minstrel changed the message to sing about Sir Robin’s recent cowardice. This outcome between a bard or minstrel and his patron was possible. A politician took a big risk hiring a bard to count or a minstrel to sing a carefully crafted message of praise throughout the city. Whatever the payment agreement was could be voided by blackmail. “Pay double now, or I’ll sing that it was a lie and you’re a fraud.”

Today we live in the 21st century. While the work of the minstrels has become the performance of bands and musicals (shows), and the work of the bards is written in books, the storyteller can be found everywhere today. He or she pilots a speedboat full of tourists in the Everglades, drives a lift truck full of guests in Disney World Animal Kingdom Park, and on the Internet, storytellers are called bloggers.