1. BACKGROUND AND ORIENTATION TO THE STUDY 1 INTRODUCTION
2.8 COMMON STYLES IN TABLOID NEWS REPORTING
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objective and sensational news programme. They operationalised content by taking together several definitions. Nine categories were distinguished, including four non- sensational subjects (politics, economics, education, and health) and five sensational news subjects (crime, disasters/accidents, news about celebrities, scandals and sex). From the sensational subjects was presumed that they amuse, attract or startle.
• Tabloid packaging
The category of tabloid packagingrefers to the degree to which news stories present the readers with sudden or unexpected changes of information (camera and editing techniques et cetera). Grabe et al. (2001) distinguished two categories of form features: video manoeuvres and decorative effects, whereby video manoeuvres refer to the use of the camera. Decorative effects are inserted after the production and can be described as elements that attract the attention of readers.Decorative effects refer to short elements that attract the attention and are added to the news articles.
The use of such style of tabloid packaging attracts the attention of readers because of its decorative effects.
• Vivid Storytelling
This last category includes ways of storytelling that increase concreteness or proximity. Vettehen (2005) derived the indicators for sensationalism from two other categories, in spite of content and form, namely concreteness (a) and proximity (b).
Exemplification is seen as more concrete and therefore more sensational than general information. Two different types of exemplification can be distinguished:
personification and lay person speaking. A report about the personal situation of individuals heightens the concreteness of the listeners’ report. Furthermore, a distinction can be made between comments made by politicians or experts on one hand and a layperson on the other hand. Comments made by a layperson are more concrete and therefore more sensational. Proximity refers to sensational techniques like close-ups and zoom-in movements (Vettehen, 2005). Thus, in the current society, sensational news attracts the attention and is characterised as content that entertains, amuses and realises higher viewer ratings (Nuijten, 2007:114).
66 2.8.2 Narrative style of reporting
Tabloids are often considered to carry a narrative form of journalism. Unlike straight news stories which offer readers the basic who, what, where, when and why of a story, narrative news pieces are longer and allow the writer to employ more elements of prose writing. Stories that are considered narrative journalism often appear in magazines and allow a reporter to approach a subject in different ways. The famed journalist Tom Wolfe is among those credited with pioneering the use of narrative journalism. Moreover, as an immersive style of storytelling, narrative journalism is used to captivate readers by drawing them into a story with greater detail than is found in traditional news stories (Rudin & Ibbotson, 2002:67).
Furthermore, generations ago narrative journalism was the rule in reporting and not the exception. Stories (sometimes rather subjectively reported and quite long by today's standards) in newspapers and magazines led the readers through a gripping tale told entirely from the view and experiences of the author. However, times have definitely changed. Today, narrative journalism is not commonly used by most mainstream media outlets. In fact, many journalists stick with very basic formulas or utilise the "inverted pyramid" style of reporting in an effort to keep their writing concise and easy to edit. Some may even be unfamiliar with the technique, having never learned it throughout their careers as "beat" reporters (Rudin & Ibbotson, 2002).
Factors that define narrative journalism
There is much discussion among professional writers as to what actually defines the factors of narrative journalism and how useful it is. It is a fine line between storytelling and the truth. Newspaper narratives are also entirely true and factual in every detail. The factors of narrative journalism are presented below:
• Accurate reporting
The narrative story needs to have all of the accuracy and facts of any news story.
Many writers have stretched this boundary and have been called out for their exaggerations. The articles should have the names of the reliable sources, people or documents. Moreover, the journalists should check that all the key facts and quotes are present in the context. The emotional language should be backed up by a
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powerful story and irrefutable evidence. It is imperative that the pictures represent the event accurately. The leads, headlines, captions, cross heads, etc. should reflect the content accurately (Rudin & Ibbotson, 2002:70).
• Story telling
Narratives are often written in the manner of storytelling with as much detail as a novelist may include in a book, just in a shorter, non-fiction piece. They include the character of a person, place or thing and use descriptive prose to bring the reader into the story, often with the intent of provoking a feeling. Just because journalists are reaching into the realm of storytelling does not mean that they can fabricate the truth. They are ethically obliged to report the news story objectively and avoid the use of sensationalism in order to lure the reader to the news report (ibid).
• Journalistic concerns about narrative reporting
One of the biggest worries editors and publishers have about narrative journalism is that because it is a blend of facts and feelings, problems can occur. Many authors have been nabbed for stating mistruths in their pieces. Though some of the journalists accused of making up details were in fact guilty, others claimed to have simply misinterpreted situations. Because narrative journalism makes fact-checking challenging, it is still considered taboo in most news rooms (Caffrey, 2008).
Thus, if journalists are planning on trying out narrative journalism, they should talk to their editor first (if applicable). The journalists should find out if the editors have any concerns regarding the technique. In addition, the journalists should also try to hash out a plan so that they may both be comfortable with the outcome. That way, the journalist will face the ramifications when they turn in an assignment that is not acceptable to the standards of the editor’s publication (Caffrey, 2008).