First Take: “Persona” is a word we use colloquially for the image someone presents to the world—the public face or personality perceived by others.  The term is also useful, however, for naming the figure of the journalist within a work of reportage.  

Deeper: That is, while we generally draw our sense of the reporter’s personality largely from his or her narrative voice, narrative journalists can also make themselves into a literary character in the story we’re reading. This persona allows the writer-narrator some retrospective distance on their experience, often letting us in on a second “story behind the story,” the tale of how the research was conducted.  Quite often the recounting of the reporter’s learning curve, or his or her discovered fallibility, is very much at the center of this second plot.
         Are that persona and the flesh-and-blood journalist one and the same being?  Of course, most journalists would not accept the difference, insisting that they are duty-bound to represent themselves precisely as they are, and as they acted on the scene. However, if we track the derivation of the word “persona,” we’re liable to come up with the Latin word for “mask,” with the distinction being that a persona is not precisely what we think we project, but what others see. Moreover, public personae do imply an element of performance. Even mainstream journalists, for example, will often recommend the usefulness of maintaining a demeanor that, while not inherently deceptive, adopts the appearance of neutrality or quizzical interest without revealing their beliefs or conclusions. In narrative terms, this demeanor is often presented, meanwhile, via indirect quotation. That is, in many kinds of narrative journalism, sources and subjects are commonly quoted directly, but the journalist’s talk is partly effaced or silenced. In many famous instances, furthermore, reporters have adopted trademark identities that speak to their cultural affinities or professional approach:  from the cigar-chomping, shoeleather urban bar hound (such as Jimmy Breslin), to the innocent-abroad, satiric traveller (like Tony Horwitz), to the awkward, seemingly shy but sharp observer (Joan Didion, Janet Malcolm and many others).

Recommended Reading:  Michael Broersma, “Journalism as Performative Discourse:  The Importance of Form and Style in Journalism,” In Journalism and Meaning-Making: Reading the Newspaper.  Ed. Veric Rupar.  (Cresskill, N.J.:  Hampton Press, Inc. 2010).