Narrative ideologies in the newsroom

A news story comes into being through a succession of narrative situations (Merminod 2019; Merminod & Burger 2019), described in terms of ways of telling, tellers and sites (Georgakopoulou 2007, 2015). However, to be completely relevant, the analysis of narrative situations needs to be supplemented with the analysis of narrative ideologies, the cultural conceptions relating to the telling of stories. To reflect on this issue, my contribution considers the production of a broadcast news story about an air crash in Indonesia (7 March 2007) by the French-Speaking Swiss public service broadcaster. More precisely, I analyse how the account of an Italian journalist who survived the accident is (re)produced in the broadcast news story. Drawing on media linguistics (Jacobs, Van Hout & Van Praet 2011; Perrin 2013; Cotter & Perrin 2017; Burger 2018), the analysis follows the circulation of this account in the newsroom, from its first mention by a producer in the late morning until its broadcast as part of the 7:30 pm broadcast news bulletin. It details the successive narrative situations relating to the production of the Italian journalist’s account, paying particular attention to the way journalists name the story at hand and to the characteristics they attach to it throughout the day. The analysis uncovers three pillars that underlie the journalists’ narrative ideologies in the community of practice under study: a story must be contextually appropriate (in terms of content, form and the social relations it implies), must show a unity of action (both in terms of what is told and how it is told) and must be true (this concerns both the authenticity of the reported facts and the credibility of their communication).