Nothing but the Facts?

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. KEYWORDS news making; storytelling; truth; journalistic practices; news ethnography; interpretative repertoires Storytelling in journalism is seen as a way to make news more meaningful for audiences. At the same time, it is often presented as standing vis-à-vis journalists' truth-seeking mission. Maras (2013, 66, emphasis added), for instance, writes in his monograph on objectivity: "One the one hand, reporters provide facts. On the other hand, they are teachers and storytellers compelled to draw on frames to educate, persuade and entertain". This paper wants to go beyond the storytelling-versus-reality debate by exploring storytelling as journalistic practice (cf. Ahva 2017; Couldry 2004; Swidler 2001). It shifts the emphasis from the study of texts and/or its effects (as is the case with the majority of storytelling research, e.g. Emde, Klimmt, and Schluetz 2016; Yaros 2006) to the ethnographic study of people's doings and sayings (Couldry 2004). Although it's unquestioned and "embodied" nature is at the core of practices (Swidler 2001), we also feel at home with Ahva's (2017, 1527) emphasis on the reflexivity aspect of practice-"to avoid the idea that people would merely 'act out' practices". Therefore, we take journalists' reflections about their practices as seriously as their performances. More specifically, this paper aims to provide more insight into the dilemma's and paradoxes journalists face when actually making and developing news stories. Through an analysis of the interpretative repertoires used by news beat reporters and journalistic storytelling experts, we seek to explore the discursive space within which journalists talk

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