Narrative Journalism - History

History

Truman Capote's In Cold Blood is a historic example of narrative journalism in novel form. The book was published in 1965, being therefore the second "nonfiction novel" and helped show journalists the possibility of using creative writing techniques while holding to the guidelines of journalism. The first "non-fiction" novel was "Operación Masacre", written in 1957 by the Argentine writer Rodolfo Walsh.

Though Capote claims to have invented this new form of journalism, the origin of a movement of creative writing in journalism is often thought to have occurred much earlier. Characteristics of narrative journalism can be found in Daniel Defoe's writing in the 18th century, as well as in writings of Mark Twain in the 19th century and James Agee, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck in the World War II period.

Capote's contemporary Tom Wolfe also wrote The New Journalism in 1974 and is credited for popularizing discussion on the appropriateness of narrative in journalism. He cites Gay Talese with being the "father" of new journalism, and exemplifies the foundations of narrative journalism in his compilation "The Gay Talese Reader".

Today, many nonfiction novels use narrative journalism to tell their stories. Print publications such as Harper's, The New Yorker, Esquire, Rolling Stone, and The Village Voice are also welcome homes to narrative journalists.

Mainstream newspaper publications are still wary of supporting narrative journalism too much due to time and space constraints, and will often print the occasional narrative in a Sunday features or supplemental magazine.

The definitions of narrative journalism are many and varied. Some prefer to refer to literary journalism, or creative non-fiction. Simply put, narrative is the way in which a story is constructed through a particular point of view and arrangement of events. The Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, launched in 2001, aims to provide a centre for the teaching, learning and practice of narrative journalism. The Nieman Foundation defines narrative journalism as more than simply telling stories: it is a complex genre with multiple layers and contexts that, when done well, has the capacity to reform newspapers and make them essential and compelling. Broadly, some critical elements of narrative journalism include the following:

• It contains accurate, well-researched information, and is also interesting to read.

• It looks at intriguing people, human emotions, and real situations. It provides the private story behind the public story.

• It reaches past the ordinary by blending the reportage of facts with the writing style of fiction.

Mark Kramer, former director of the Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism, says it is “journalism that doesn’t assume the reader is a robot, that acknowledges the reader knows lots and feels and snickers and gets wild.” Kramer stresses the importance of voice. Readers have their coffee with the newspaper in the morning, he says. They want to understand and even identify with the news voice; but regular news reporting is anonymous and restrained, leaving the reader feeling lonely. When you have an audience made up of so many disparate sorts of people it seems noble to appeal to the lowest common denominator and just talk about the facts. But what happens is depersonalisation of the news voice – narrative journalism aims to put the human voice back at the breakfast table. Kramer defines narrative journalism as writing that contains the following elements:

1. Set scenes;

2. Characters;

3. Action that unfolds over time;

4. Voice that has personality;

5. A relationship with the audience; and

6. Destination – a theme, a purpose, and a reason.