What’s Wrong with the News and Who Cares?
Narrative is what I come up with when I put my niece to bed and she says, “Tell me a story.” I tell her a story, I don’t tell her an article. ~ Janet Rae Brooks, Salt Lake Tribune
My friend Mara who is studying creative writing at Hollins University (VA) tells me that the style of writing I’ve been freelancing to our local newspaper is “narrative journalism.” I knew it was more personal and conversational than traditional reporting, but I didn’t exactly know that’s what I was doing until Mara’s comment prompted me to do some research on this genre.
Unlike today’s more accepted standard of objective journalism, narrative journalism is done from a first person perspective. Also known as “literary journalism” because it demands a quality of writing that goes beyond simply reporting, narrative journalism blends reporting with storytelling. It doesn’t overload its readers with facts and figures. The ones it does use are blended in with scene setting, dialogue, and first-hand sensory descriptions.
Nancy Graham Holm, from the Danish School of Journalism, writes in an article titled “Subjectivity: No Longer a Dirty Word,” that narrative journalism is non-fiction writing that “doesn’t try to be objective but does try to be fair.” She explains how information alone doesn’t necessarily inform. “Participation in events and subsequent interpretation are required to break down the psychological barriers of apathy and cynicism. Numinosity – Jung’s term for emotional attention and heightened psychological awareness is necessary for understanding.”
With roots in the oral tradition, narrative journalism can also be entertaining to read. After the 2004 election, I closely followed the results as described by MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann on his blog. For months, I visited Olbermann’s blog every day. Initially, I went because I wanted to understand why the final election results didn’t match the exit polls that determined Kerry had won. Olbermann didn’t just report, he put what was happening in context. The more I read, the more the back story and Olbermann’s witty writing pulled me in. The fact that he posted a few blog entries from a motel room while on vacation and revealed some conversations he had with his co-workers as he reported, made the news more interesting to follow. Good personal narrative is part of what makes blogs so appealing.
Some of the articles I read on narrative journalism pointed to authors like Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson for popularizing the style. Others emphasized that the model is much older. “Generations ago, narrative journalism was the rule in reporting and not the exception. Stories (sometimes rather subjectively reported and quite long by today’s standards) in magazine and newspapers led the reader through a gripping tale told entirely from the view and experiences of the author,” says explorewriting.co.uk, a site for writers.
Holm and other proponents of narrative journalism believe that the more we identify with a story, the more impact it has on us. The more we are impacted, the more chance we’ll be motivated to act on what we’ve learned. But even before identification and impact can happen, a piece of writing has to compel us to read or listen.
Americans are known for complaining about how negative the news is, but maybe it’s not the news as much as the way it’s told that’s so discouraging. I believe most people want to be informed, but receiving a litany of disjointed facts that fill up the mind can be overwhelming and, ultimately, un-empowering. Even more frustrating is when a reporter makes an authoritative statement and then, in an effort to be fair, counters it with a contrary view. Presenting two views is a common journalistic practice that when over-used can cancel out all meaning. Point and counterpoint journalism can encourage division by perpetuating the myth that there are only two sides to every story and that people should align themselves with one side or another.
When it comes to getting readers’ attention, news outlets are competitive. While there are many excellent traditional journalists writing today, the companies they work for have been known to resort to marketing trends that aren’t necessarily in the best interest of the public. Sensationalized headlines and stories that play on my fears might initially get my attention, but they don’t hold it. I’d rather invest my time reading or listening to a well-rounded story that I can draw my own conclusions from.
As a writer, I like to place myself in the stories I write so that readers can see through my eyes. Details that can be visualized are more memorable than those of statistics. In spite of the trouble I had memorizing dates in high school, History was my favorite subject because the teachers I had were engaging, loved history, and told stories.
Now that more people are getting their news online and traditional news outlets have been forced to make changes, it might be an ideal time for a resurgence of narrative journalism. According to Bill Kirtz in an article entitled “Newsroom Politics: How to Make the Case for Narrative Journalism,” it may already be on the rise. He, a professor of journalism at Northeastern University in Boston, cites the following sentence as evidence: Susan Love focused on the blue eyes of the man who lay before her on the floor of the Hennepin County courthouse, almost oblivious to the haze of drawn guns, shouting and deputies swirling around them… “It ran on page one of the Star-tribune, above the fold,” Kirtz said.
Now wouldn’t you want to hear the rest of that story?
April 29th, 2007 11:52 pm
I think I still prefer my news from The Daily Show. 🙂
Interesting thoughts.
Michele sent me this time!
~S
April 30th, 2007 5:42 am
I, too, had to discover what it was I was doing from the gut, with language. A refugee from the cold eye of science, I lost my fear of putting me-I perspective into public writing in my blog five years ago this month.
While not giving up my objective observer’s eye, I felt compelled to give a more subjective account–in my case, of nature; in yours, the political events of the day.
The genre of “creative non-fiction” at seemed to me an oxymoron, just as perhaps “narrative journalism” does for us now, after years of cold-eye factoids.
April 30th, 2007 7:14 am
I love Keith Olberman’s show. That one I actually watch.
Martin thinks highly of Tom Wolfe. Tom was always good to help him when he started writing.
April 30th, 2007 8:16 am
In many ways I think narrative journalism and creative non-fiction (close to the same thing) is even more honest than objective reporting because you are owning from the start that it is your account of what you saw through your own eyes, sort of like using I statements as opposed to YOU ones in an arguement. Who can aruge with that? I do think that’s what was burning me out about writing political commentaries, immersion in the world of facts, figures, and research. I started my blog as well, Fred, to have more fun with writing. I think narrative/creative is more refreshing to write and I suspect to read as well. Objective journalism won’t go away and shouldn’t. There’s room for all. At first I rejected the term creative non-ficiton because before I looked into it I was thinking it meant you could make up stuff. I’m just not a fiction writer, no matter how much Mara nudges me to try.
That’s great that Martin got support from Tom Wolfe, Deana. I’d like to hear more about that someday. I love Wolfe’s “Electric Koolaid Acid Test,” which I read in my 20’s along with Vonnegut.
April 30th, 2007 11:23 am
As a writer myself, I found this post very interesting. I’m a fiction writer. I love using my imagination to create plot and characters. I know I could never be a journalist….because that is and should be extremely objective. I’m a much more subjective kind of person and writer. Even the column that I do for the Cedar Key News is subjective. I interview my subjects and get concrete info. But I then weave it with my own observations.
Even in my blogs on a controversial subject….I seldom give both points of view. I only give mine. Not to sway my reader. Only to vent my own subjective feelings. Hopefully, I give them something else to consider. But that’s all I intend to accomplish, in addition to my venting via my writing.
I was always led to believe that “creative non-fiction” is the genre that focuses on memoirs and that style of writing. Not so much on journalistic writing. But like anything in writing…I feel it can be whatever you, the writer, intends it to be.
April 30th, 2007 12:48 pm
I like “literary journalism”. Thanks for sharing!
April 30th, 2007 1:28 pm
See, you didn’t even know there was a name for what you did.
I usually agree w. what you write. When I don’t your style of writing invites me to try your thoughts on for size. Because, they are not jammed down my throat as this is the only way to view this information.
I always love when Gregg Braden says just entertain this idea or possibility.
April 30th, 2007 1:39 pm
all of this makes sense, colleen. it was an interesting read. and i agree that narrative journalism would probably do much for getting rid of the apathy that modern-day news creates.
i would much rather hear a story…….
April 30th, 2007 3:50 pm
This is a fascinating post Colleen for so many reasons…and as I was reading it I thought…Truman Capote and “IN COLD BLOOD”…I am not sure that fits exactly the ‘name’ given…and that led me to this thought of the complexity of writing and the individual writer’s comfort level in the way in which they express themselves…I have always disliked descripive explanations of anything…I mean trying to figure out just what writing box one fits into…It seems to me these labels can be limiting, just as the two points of view on any given subject can be limiting…I guess, for some people being able to put a name or label to the kind of writing they do brings a comfort of sorts…but for me, as I said, I find it limiting. Personally, I think there is GOOD writing and BAD writing and a lot of shades of gray in between…LOL!
I LOVE Keith Olbermann, Colleen, and really appreciate him telling us how he feels about so very many of the things he reports on–on his MSNBC News/Reporting/Commentary program. I have never been to his blog…I will have to check it out!
April 30th, 2007 4:45 pm
Absolutely, Naomi! Truman Capote is also mentioned repeatedly in relation to narrative journalism.
I don’t think Keith is blogging anymore. When I try to access the address here http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/ It seems to have stopped in September of 06.
April 30th, 2007 6:14 pm
Gah, you are so wonderful at making people think. I love reading your blog, makes my day just a little more interesting.
Hope all went well the other night at the ceremony thingy.
April 30th, 2007 6:37 pm
Truman Capote and “In Cold Blood” is exactly right — it’s what I was thinking the entire time I read this post, as he’s credited for birthing creative nonfiction as a popular genre with that work, too. I was going to ask if you’d stumbled on that idea in your research, Colleen, and then saw someone else brought it up, too.
This was a great post. This kind of writing is the kind I love, too — I think I first got turned on to it when I read a great article in the New Yorker about eight years ago on this small-time diner that was closing down after, like, 50 years of business. The up-close pics of the gritty, blue-collar owners and the writing that made me feel I knew them sold me on the article from the start. I couldn’t put it down. Same thing happened shortly after that when I read a 5-page article (in the New Yorker, too) about a woman who purchases Steinway pianos for a living. Fascinating . . . because told from the personal angle.
Who needs cold facts and figures when the point is to try and speak to a living, breathing human being with a very human heart??
April 30th, 2007 8:18 pm
The best kind of journalism is the kind that infuses the “people factor” so as human beings, we naturally pay more attention and can relate. It stays with us because it is meaningful. That’s what is always true with teaching, no matter what grade/course. I remember university profs relating their experiences and we all listened intently. I learned withiut knowing I was learning. I always tried to employ those techniques with my teachng Gr. 1-7 and it has always served me well. I meet kids now that I taught 25 years ago and they tell me they remember all my personal stories. It makes learning AND teaching more interesting and colourful.
May 1st, 2007 9:49 am
Narrative journalism has been with us as long as the printed word. Legendary Chicago journalist Finley Peter Dunne practiced it. So did H.L. Mencken. Some of Ernie Pyle’s best dispatches of World War II were narrative pieces and Mark Twain’s early works were narrative stories for newspapers.
Although I’m primarily old school journalism (observe the story not be it) I see the value of narrative pieces.
The trick is to not let your personal bias get in the way of telling the story.
May 1st, 2007 10:14 pm
Doug, I don’t even mind a personal bias as long as you don’t try to convince me you are “fair and balanced” as you spin your point of view. When you have a bias, just own up to it and tell your side of the story. It’s the dishonesty of a bias masquerading as unvarnished fact that gets my dander up. Treat me as an idiot and I’ll never believe a thing you tell me, fact or fiction.
Anyway, great post Colleen. I’ve been back to the comments a couple of times to follow the conversation.
May 2nd, 2007 3:01 am
Brings to mind this quote of Vivian Gornick’s in Jane Taylor McDonnell’s _Living to Tell the Tale: A Guide to Writing Memoir_:
“Truth in a memoir is achieved not through a recital of actual events; it is achieved when the reader comes to believe that the writer is working hard to engage with the experience at hand. What happened to the memoirist is not what matters; it matters only what the memoirist *makes* of what happened.”