Sustainability ante‐narratives in media organisations:A storytelling approach to prospective sensemaking and the narrative evolution of sustainability

‘When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills’ ‐ Chinese proverb. A lot of research is directed at the current paradigm of sustainability, but this research is interested in what sustainability could become… sustainability ante‐ narratives. By studying the phenomena sustainability within media organisations this research applies ante‐narrative to realise sensemaking of sustainability, and how this ambiguous concept manifests itself now but more predominantly in the future of media organisations. It is with this in mind that we incorporate a storytelling methodology to research prospective sustainability though a case study at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). This paper examines primarily sustainability interviews, corporate responsibility reports, and sustainability reports to understand how organisational actors are responding to sustainability, and how the story and narrative are shifting perspectives to reveal potential sustainability evolution. The paper also evaluates though reflection the viability of this novel method as a tool to examine future sustainability.