Narrative journalism as complementary inquiry

Authors

  • Jørgen Jeppesen
  • Helle Ploug Hansen

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/qs.v2i2.5512

Abstract

Narrative journalism is a method to craft stories worth reading about real people. In this article, we explore the ability of that communicative power to produce insights complementary to those obtainable through traditional qualitative and quantitative research methods. With examples from a study of journalistic narrative as patient involvement in professional rehabilitation, interview data transcribed as stories are analyzed for qualities of heterogeneity, sensibility, transparency, and reflexivity. Building on sociological theories of thinking with stories, writing as inquiry, and public journalism as ethnography, we suggest that narrative journalism as a common practice might unfold dimensions of subjective otherness of the self. Aspiring to unite writing in both transparently confrontational and empathetically dialogic ways, the narrative journalistic method holds a potential to expose dynamics of power within the interview.

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Published

2011-10-03

How to Cite

Jeppesen, J., & Hansen, H. P. (2011). Narrative journalism as complementary inquiry. Qualitative Studies, 2(2), 98–117. https://doi.org/10.7146/qs.v2i2.5512

Issue

Section

Articles in English