Abstract
This paper seeks to understand how journalists deal with storytelling and truth-seeking in their daily news practice. While storytelling is usually studied through texts, we approached it from a practice perspective, combining data from three ethnographic studies in which 36 beat reporters and 13 journalistic storytelling experts were extensively interviewed. Because of the emphasis journalists place on “finding out the truth” in public discourses, it is tempting for academics to present them as naive truth-seekers. However, by means of an interpretative repertoire analysis of their “practice” discourses, we seek to enlarge the discursive space to talk about the supposed tension between story and reality. Although departing from the idea that all news making is storytelling, the interviewed journalists consider news making and storytelling as distinct—and sometimes opposing—practices. These professional practices serve as the framework around which five storytelling repertoires are organized.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 997-1007 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Journalism Practice |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| Early online date | 10 Jul 2018 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 14 Sept 2018 |
Funding
This article is part of the research project, “The New News Consumer: User-Based Innovation to Meet Paradigmatic Change in News Use and Media Habits”, supported by The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) [314-99-103] and 10 Dutch journalism organizations (see http://www.news-use.com).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| 10 Dutch journalism organizations | |
| Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek | 314-99-103 |
Keywords
- news making
- storytelling
- truth
- journalistic practices
- news ethnography
- interpretative repertoires