Narrative Journalism

"A journalist makes himself the hero of the story. A reporter is only a witness."
--Jim Cleary (Deadline U.S.A.)

Proposition that the mainstream media generally practices "narrative journalism" rather than "factual journalism." Narrative journalism is defined as devotion to preconceived storylines that fit a particular agenda or ideological view. Narrative journalism is a form of confirmation bias.

Therefore, a story where a white police officer who shoots a black person is preconceived as racism and reporting is slanted in that direction regardless of opposing views or evidence.

The author claims that narrative journalism is "almost always" a progressive phenomenon. While both theory and evidence suggest a left leaning bias, "almost always" understates bias present in conservative outlets.

For example, after this week's torture story broke, right-leaning outlets were predictably beginning their 'analysis' with the preconceived notion that, in unsafe times, torture keeps us safe, and then proceeded down a path that favored this view.

The point of the author seems to be that narrative journalism is "bad" while factual journalism is "good." The problem with this thesis is that, because all of us are prone to practice confirmation bias to some degree, then we will prefer to consume media that allows us to reinforce our own biases (i.e., pleasure of thinking that we are right over pain of suspecting that we might be wrong).

Stated differently, there is a market for narrative journalism. It is demand driven. Otherwise it would be starved of resources. It would not be as large and as persistent as it has become.