ABSTRACT
Over the past three decades, narrative has become such a popular—and contested—concept in the social sciences and humanities that numerous scholars detected a “narrative turn” (Bruner, 1991; Kreiswirth, 1992; Brockmeier & Harré, 2001). After its beginnings in philosophy, literary theory, and classical narratology, the “concept has successfully traveled to psychology, education, social sciences, political thought and policy analysis, health research, law, theology and cognitive science” (Hyvärinen, 2006, p. 20). In journalism studies, however, as Zelizer (2004, p. 130) observed, “[s]cholarship on news narrative was set in place with a certain degree of opposition from journalism professionals and traditional journalism scholars, for the narrative qualities of news from the onset were seen as posing problems for journalists.” This might have to do with the fact, discussed in more detail below, that journalistic storytelling is a narrative practice housed in a professional practice, creating a permanent tension between the demand for objectivity and distance and the need to tell compelling stories. Despite some initial misgivings, journalism scholars have nevertheless produced extensive research exploring the relationship between news and narrative over the past decades (see Bird & Dardenne, 2009; Forde, 2008; Zelizer, 2004).
