University of Groningen Between Personal Experience and Detached
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University of Groningen Between personal experience and detached information Harbers, Frank IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2014 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Harbers, F. (2014). Between personal experience and detached information: The development of reporting and the reportage in Great Britain, the Netherlands and France, 1880-2005. [S.l.]: [S.n.]. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 12-11-2019 Paranymphs Dominique van der Wal Marten Harbers Voor mijn vader en mijn moeder Graphic design Peter Boersma - www.hehallo.nl Printed by Wöhrmann Print Service Between Personal Experience and Detached Information The development of reporting and the reportage in Great Britain, the Netherlands and France, 1880-2005 Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen op gezag van de rector magnificus prof. dr. E. Sterken en volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties. De openbare verdediging zal plaatsvinden op donderdag 30 oktober 2014 om 14.30 uur door Frank Harbers geboren op 23 april 1983 te Groningen Promotores Prof. dr. M.J. Broersma Prof. dr. M.G. Kemperink Beoordelingscommissie Prof. dr. M.S.S.E. Janssen Prof. dr. H.B.M. Wijfjes Prof. dr. M. Conboy ISBN printed version: 978-90-367-7303-4 ISBN digital version: 978-90-367-7416-1 5 6 Table of contents I Introduction 11 The rise of a professional framework 14 The grand narrative of journalism history 16 Focusing on the journalistic text 18 Criticizing the normative perspective on journalism history 19 The multiformity of European journalism history 20 Reporting as a new practice 23 The reportage: a pivotal genre 25 The subjectivity of the reporter 27 Research questions 28 Research design: mixed methods 29 Four case studies 31 A content analysis of 3 x 3 national dailies 32 Outline of the Dissertation 34 II Theoretical framework 37 Defining discourse 40 Journalism as a performative discourse 42 Competing discursive strategies 47 The reportage: an arena for competing discursive norms 52 Five dimensions of subjectivity 56 III Methodology 61 Introduction: combining quantitative and qualitative research 61 Defining content analysis 63 Sampling 64 Designing a content analysis 65 Reliability, coder training and the coding process 68 Reporting and calculating intercoder reliability 72 Conceptions of journalism - a tentative operationalization 75 Case study research 76 Case study design 76 IV Journalistic overtures 81 The rise of a mass press 83 Towards a more competitive press landscape 85 The revolution of ‘new journalism’? 92 Fierce debates, gradual changes 96 Expanding the topical horizon 98 Modest innovations in lay-out 104 table of contents 7 Interviewing as an upcoming practice 108 On the threshold - the gradual adoption of new forms 113 The reportage vs. the report 117 Conclusion 121 V “Ils ont bombardé Reims en nous avons vu cela!” 123 War reporting and censorship 124 Witnessing war 128 The reporters, their social environment and their reportages 130 1914: the German invasion of Belgium and the north of France 135 The narrative characteristics of the reportages 136 Covering the war 136 Evoking an experience: perspective, imagery, personification, reflection 138 Building tension 141 Imagery 142 Symbolic depictions 144 Tone 146 Conclusion 147 VI Convergence and distinction 149 Commercial competition - between success and distress 151 Competing for readership 153 Advertisement, size, newshole 156 Professionalizing journalism 159 Moving away from the vertical logic 161 Finding an unique selling point, while heeding the competition 164 Active newsgathering 168 More news, but not more reporting 170 The reportage: an exclusive genre 173 Conclusion 176 VII Strangers in paradise 177 Colonialism on a crossroads 179 Grand reporters vs. anonymous correspondents 181 Succinct depiction 186 Interviewing vs. observing 188 Alternating observation and contextualization 190 The colonial experience - bringing foreign worlds closer 195 First person perspective 195 Subjective interpretation 196 A sense of immediacy and proximity 197 Evoking a tropical paradise: imagery 199 Écriture artiste 202 The pivotal role of the setting 204 Conclusion 205 8 table of contents VIII Subscribing to the objectivity regime 225 Introduction 225 The Second World War and its aftermath 227 Structuring the press landscape - between the devil and the deep sea 230 Circulation, diffusion and concentration 232 From a press landscape to a media landscape 235 Uniformization of the lay-out 240 Entertaining or informing 242 Professionalization 246 Determining quality journalism 249 News vs. background stories 254 The rise of the interview and the reshaping of the reportage 258 Conclusion 260 IX Disconnecting information from experience 263 The ‘sixties’ as historical benchmark 263 The New Journalism 264 Objectivity and the changing status of the grand reporter 267 May ’68 270 Universalizing observation, effacing the personal 272 Terse information 275 Tangible anecdotes and short impressions 277 The dual purpose of direct quotes 278 ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ 280 The appreciation of a literary exception 284 Conclusion 291 X High modernism and beyond 293 The reign and end of high modernism in journalism 293 Forms of featurized journalism 297 Press concentration and rationalization 299 The proliferation of (new) media and the fragmentation of the public 303 Catching the eyes of the readership 308 More entertaining news? 310 Consulting different sources 317 Providing context: analysis or experience? 321 Conclusion 323 table of contents 9 XI Making it personal 325 Introduction 325 Journalism, I-pistemology and postmodern society and culture 328 Debating alternative conceptions of journalism 330 The appeal of the narrative form 335 Literary journalism and its conception of quality 339 Award-winning quality reporters 341 Between detached reporting and mediating subjectivity 343 Telling a story through quotes 344 The fly on the wall 346 The mediating subjectivity resurfaces 349 A human angle and personal approach 351 Opinion and reflection 353 A novelist as reporter 356 Highlighting subjectivity 357 Imagery and cultural critique 358 Irony and ambivalence 359 Conclusion 363 XII Conclusion 365 Acknowledging the dynamic and complex nature of journalism history 365 Debunking the grand narrative of journalism history 368 Bibliography 375 Appendix I 407 Appendix II 419 Nederlandse samenvatting 439 Het ‘standaardverhaal’ van de geschiedenis van de journalistiek 439 De reportage als sleutelgenre 440 Methode 440 De resultaten 441 De verslaggever als betrouwbare getuige 441 Verschillende professionele idealen 441 De intrede van het objectiviteitsregime 442 Professionele stabiliteit en de afkalving ervan 443 Conclusie 444 Dankwoord/Acknowledgements 445 10 chapter i 11 I Introduction Journalism is currently experiencing a far-reaching reconceptualization with regard to its function in society. Journalists and scholars alike are still convinced of journalism’s value for democratic society in disseminating trustworthy information and keeping checks on the people and institutions in power. Yet, they also fear that contemporary journalism practice, in relation to the current institutional and commercial organization of the media landscape, may prevent its future viability in a digitized and networked society. For that reason, there is a lively debate that tries to tackle the question how professional journalism should perform and be organized in order to sustain its democratic role in Western societies. Especially newspaper journalism is having a hard time keeping afloat in times of dropping general readership, decreasing circulation, and declining advertisement revenues. As a result, the established professional norms, routines and textual forms revolving around objectivity are being questioned and discussed, and journalists and editors are looking for new ways to appeal to readers.1 However, the current debates have not resolved into anything like a clear consensus about how journalists can reconnect to their readership. The former editor-in-chief of the Dutch newspaper NRC.Next and founding father of the innovative crowd-funded and online-only journalistic platform De Correspondent, Rob Wijnberg, has renounced objectivity, inscribing himself into a tradition of scholarly critique that views objectivity as an influential illusion. According to Wijnberg, the efforts to maintain this illusion have contributed to the readership’s disengagement with the world. Con- versely, he makes a compelling argument for a return to the traditions of storytelling in journalism. Objectifying news makes it much harder