I found interesting to link the article Pattern of Migration and the readings for the class to better understand what narrative journalism is.
In her article, Trish O'Kane briefly talks about her own life and her perception of what home is. As she has lived in different countries and different parts of the United States, her own experience shows how the concept of home has become important for her. It seems that there is no specific aim to this piece. The only goal is to share a bit of herself with the readers.
Generally we tend to be more interested in general topics that do not deal with individuals for themselves but individuals as a whole. In the newspapers, topics are far from individuals and from what is common to us. The main interests are politics, economics, society as a whole and countries as entities.
But, with the narrative genre, a new interest is given to the individual. This is a kind of common trend now in our Western societies to give more importance to common people. More shows deal with lives of common people, their problems and the way they chose to overcome them. Reality TV and blogs are examples that highlight that nowadays we give more importance to individuals. There is a growing need to share individual experiences and to interact.
How to explain it then? Knowing about other people’s lives and experiences can be helpful. It is useful and reassuring to see that other people have been through a similar situation as yours. Also, reading about others is a way to know more about ourselves and about who we are. For example, this woman who got a tattoo as a token for her fight against cancer (see Badge of Courage) shows that cancer is not an end; what is important is to have the strength to build this bridge towards recovery.
Finally, literary journalism is interesting in that it gives an idea of what are in people’s minds at a certain time and an idea of how they live too. This journalism can also be a kind of anthropological work. Traveling and living in new places and writing about one’s own experiences is a good way to give more insights of a specific community or society. That’s what Ted Conover did (The art of literary journalism, Norman Sims). According to him, living with hoboes or Mexican immigrants is the only way to really know who they are. In this new style of journalism, what makes the news is one’s personal experience.
Though, everyone can write his experiences in a diary but not everyone can make an art of his experiences. It seems to me that writing a narrative piece requires analyses. There might be a goal or a message. Also, writing about oneself is not an easy task and there are lots of dangers. One can be tempted to embellish reality or on the contrary to make a situation look more tragic than it was.
Then what is the aim of narrative journalism? Writing about others’ realities and lives or your reality?
It seemed to me that there are three different types of narrative journalism and thus three different aims:
1) Writing about yourself and what you have been through.
2) Writing about other people who you’ve lived with for a while. This is still your own experience that is important. For example, living with a family in a foreign country makes you aware of their culture, traditions and beliefs. The goal here would be to write about others thanks to your personal experience.
3) Writing about others. The aim is to become part of a community, observe them. What is important here is the understanding one wants to get of a specific group.
Here are my first thoughts after the readings. :)
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4 comments:
I like your point about how narrative journalism deals with everyday personal experiences instead of politics, economics, etc. Before doing the readings I didn't know that writing about ordinary people and experiences had a specific genre, but now I'm getting a better idea of what features and authors fit this type of journalism. These pieces are creatively written nonfiction accounts of what actually goes on in the lives of ordinary people. They're interesting because readers can truly connect to the stories, unlike trying to connect to stories about the lifestyles of the rich, famous and powerful. In one of the readings we read there was something along the lines of "fiction writers were freed from writing about the boring lives of nobility long ago, journalists have only recently been given this freedom." I've always wondered why people are interested in the private lives of celebrities and politicians more than they're interested in the lives of people with the liberties an ordinary life (of not being followed by journalists) allows you.
I really like your last comment about celebrities. I've always thought that it's a pity to have more interest in people you don't know than for the people who are around you. We don't quite care to know who is dating whom and what is wearing this particular celebrity. It's the same about politics. The private life of a politician is not what makes him a good or bad candidate. But this is often what is important in a campaign. And for me this "personalization" of politics is regrettable.
I like how you link together journalism with anthropology, because coming from an anthropology background I'm always seeing the connections and thus it usually comes out in my writings. In studying yourself, one is also studying the shared experiences that countless other individuals are going through. So by speaking the mind and writing personal accounts one is also able to empower or at least reach out to countless other people.
Can we somehow tap into a collective consciousness by elucidating honestly our own realities? And can we possibly write about others' realities without doing it vis-a-vis our own reality?
Terrific reflections, Virginie. You bring a wonderful perspective to these readings.
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