Narration and Journalism. Towards a Study of “Narrativity” in The News, The Serial News and The Reportage

Abstract

The study of factual narratives is in full development at the international level and represents a growing object of interest for post-classical narratology. The aim of this paper is to account for the usefulness of the gradualist notion of “narrativity” for the study of the similarities and differences between three genres of journalistic praxis (news, serial news and a sub-type of journalistic narrative that we will call “overcoming story”) and the way they are received by the reader. Accordingly, firstly, the usefulness of two variables (completeness/incompleteness and presence/absence of narrative tension) is explored in order to make a first series of typological distinctions. Secondly, the result of this enquiry is reconsidered from the perspective of “degrees of narrativity”. Finally, the article proposes some conclusions aimed at showing the productivity of applying this focus to an approach to narrative in journalism as a particular field within the broad spectrum of factual discursivity.