Once there was an old man who lived at the top of a very high and dangerous precipice. Every morning he would sit at the edge of the cliff and view the surrounding mountains and forest. One day, after he set himself down for his usual meditation, he noticed something shiny at the very bottom of the precipice. Now even though it was very far below him, the old man had keen eyes and could just barely make out what it was. It looked like a rather large, black chest with gold trimmings - just sitting there atop a rock.
Nothing captures our attention quite like a good story.
Long before there was television, movies, radio, and even books, people told stories as a way to entertain and educate. Storytelling was as important to prehistoric cave-dwellers eating antelope around a fire as it is to corporate executives doing lunch. It's in our human blood. We love the development of plot and character, the climax, the resolution, the vicarious thrill of living and learning through tales of others sufferings and triumphs. All of literature and media is but an extension of the more basic urge to tell a good story.