Reading Narrative Journalism (2024)

Here’s what I said to students about this assignment:

You might want to start by reading through “Snow Fall:  The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek,” just to get a sense of what you’re going to be evaluating–that is, assessing “how and how well” this particular story/medium tells a persuasive journalistic story.

You might also want to read this interview with John Branch about his project, or watch this YouTube presentation, or look at a “Q & A” about the backstory of its creation.

In all, what we’re asking you to reflect on is how and how well “Snow Fall” 

• uses the advantages for story-telling that come with multimedia effects (scrolling, video, charts, recorded testimonies);
• to create a Narrative  form around 
• a specific content (here, the story of an avalanche), and 
• whether and how those effects contribute to the journalistic authority of the work (or not). 

In sum, does “Snow Fall”, or does it not, create (in your view) a persuasive, compelling, authoritative journalistic study? Or in your sense does it create something different–more personal, more “reflective” or literary–or what? 

Use your own experience and preferences to make this response as personal and as creative as you like: be honest, choose anonymity if you want to–and say what you think.  

Thanks!   Here are some prompts for your essay-response-reflections:

1. Try to introduce your reader to whether you’ve encountered other forms of digital journalism before–offer links, please!!–and a little bit about how that might reflect your tastes/preferences. Do you think of yourself as a “visual” person, or not?  Do you like having “primary” documents and testimonies right in front of you, as a reader?
2. What makes this topic unique is considering how the medium shaped the narrative:  for instance, why use multimedia to capture an avalanche?  or, conversely, do you think of mulitmedia reading as akin to being in such an avalanche? Anything “virtual” going on here.   When focusing on narrative, break things down as you would any literary narrative. What kind of narrator do we have?  How is the plot “shaped” (how many acts or venues or speakers does it have)?  Is dialogue important, the number of characters, where things are “revealed”?–and so on.
3. How did these things–the medium, the narrative form–shape your access to and understanding of this particular event?–what did it make you think–and, importantly, feel?–as you read?   (Put a picture or illustration or link to a song in your answer, if it helps). Was “Snow Fall” persuasive in a journalistic way, or in some other way?  Or not?