Saying "story" in the newsroom. Towards a linguistic ethnography of narrative lexicon in broadcast news
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Studies in Communication Sciences 18.1 (2018), pp. 135–150
Saying “story” in the newsroom. Towards a linguistic ethnography
of narrative lexicon in broadcast news
Gilles Merminod, University of Lausanne, Faculty of Arts, Centre of Linguistics and
Language Sciences
gilles.merminod@unil.ch
Abstract
Despite a general agreement on the narrative nature of news, the question of what it means for the jour-
nalists to tell a story is usually taken for granted, while the analysis of the actual narrative practices in the
newsrooms often remains shallow. A way of overcoming this state of affairs is to have a look at the narrative
practices and norms in the newsroom. On the one hand, one can track the sites of narrative engagement
in the newsroom, where journalists are telling or handling stories in order to achieve their work of making
news. On the other hand, one can track the metacommentaries that foreground a narrative orientation to
news, when journalists evaluate storying choices or when they use a narrative-related lexicon. This paper
explores the latter aspect by tracking the uses of the word « histoire » (story) in the newsroom of a Swiss
Public Broadcasting Corporation. The paper identifies and analyses three different meanings of « histoire »:
« histoire » as a genre, « histoire » as a set of information and « histoire » as a semiotic product. As a reflex-
ive means, « histoire » enables the media practitioners to navigate the very practical tasks entailed by the
production of the multimodal artefact that a television news item is.
Keywords
News, narrative, story, histoire, metalanguage, formulations, newsroom, small story research, linguistic
ethnography
1 News, stories and narrative Bell, 1991), which would suggest the jour-
nalists’ narrative orientation to the world.
In communication and media studies as
much as in journalism education, news The journalist’s work is focused on the get-
and stories appear to be interchangeable ting and writing of stories. This is reflected in
notions. One can explain this partly be- the snatches of phrases in which newsroom
cause news and stories are both the result business is conducted. A good journalist “gets
of verbal practices dealing with “what hap- good stories” or “knows a good story.” A crit-
pens,” in terms of current or past events. ical news editor asks: “Is this really a story?”
The similarity of both news and stories has “Where’s the story in this?” (Bell, 1991, p. 147)
led scholars of diverse disciplines – such
as linguistics, communication and sociol- Nevertheless, in such cases, the mean-
ogy – to use the narrative conceptual ap- ing of “story” is taken for granted, with-
paratus to study news. However, despite a out questioning what the journalists are
general agreement about the narrative na- doing when they are saying this word or
ture of news, the question of what it means what it really means in its context of use.
for the journalists to tell a story is usually Additionally, if “story” seems to be used in
taken for granted, while the analysis of the newsrooms that are English-speaking, one
actual newsroom practices related to nar- might very well wonder whether or not the
ration often remains shallow. German word Geschichte, the French word
Another motivation for a narrative ap- histoire or the Italian word storia are in use
proach to news lies in the use of the word in the journalists’ daily routines and, if so,
“story” in the newsrooms (Tuchman, 1976; to what extent.
https://doi.org/10.24434/j.scoms.2018.01.010
© 2018, the authors. This work is licensed under the “Creative Commons Attribution –
NonCommercial – NoDerivatives 4.0 International” license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).136 Merminod / Studies in Communication Sciences 18.1 (2018), pp. 135–150
To address such concerns, this paper human agency and experience, continuity
is divided into three parts. First of all, it and change.
sketches some of the main issues raised Narrative studies have generally fo-
by the study of narrative and offers a brief cused on the universal features of sto-
overview of the current narrative ap- ries rather than on the culturally bound
proaches to news. Then, it examines how ones (De Fina & Georgakopoulou, 2012).
the word « histoire » (story in French) is According to Herman (2009), narrative
used by a journalist during the production studies have underlined three diverse but
of a single broadcast news item. Finally, it related aspects of stories: events sequenc-
discusses and indicates some aspects that ing, world depiction and rendering of ex-
deserve further investigation. perience 2. One can consider the case of a
story about people surviving a plane crash
1.1 Narrative and narrative approaches in Indonesia to illustrate this three-way
Narrative is a fickle notion “that resists split. The studies interested in the order-
straightforward and agreed-upon defini- ing of events would examine, for instance,
tions and conceptualizations” (De Fina & whether the narrative follows the time-
Georgakopoulou, 2012, p. 1). Depending line (by representing the crash and then
on research traditions ranging from nar- the people fleeing) or not (by mentioning
ratology and folklore studies to linguistics, the results before the cause). The studies
philosophy, psychology, sociology, an- focusing on world-making could study if
thropology and even medicine (Mishler, the narrative depicts solely the immedi-
1995; Fludernik, 2005; Hyvärinen, 2006; ate context of the crash (for instance, the
Herman, 2009; De Fina & Georgakopou- plane burning) or if it locates the event in
lou, 2012), a narrative can be considered a master narrative (about recurrent crash-
as a semiotic product (a text, a multimod- es in Indonesia, for instance). The studies
al artefact), a mental construct (a mode, a focusing on the depiction of experience
cognitive schema, a way of making sense could examine if the narrative represents
and apprehending reality) or a commu- the singular experience of a passenger
nicative practice (a social process, a re- fleeing or that of a collective.
source for interaction). Because of this, Apart from key issues, narrative stud-
a full-fledged1 or prototypical narrative ies have provided a series of theoretical
has been diversely defined as “one meth- notions (see Herman, 2007; Hühn et al.,
od of recapitulating past experience by 2014). These notions relate to text or-
matching a verbal sequence of clauses to ganisation (e. g. story/discourse; kernel/
the sequence of events which actually oc- satellites; orientation, complication, res-
curred” (Labov & Waletzky, 1967, p. 95), “a olution), grammar of events (e. g. cause,
mediation between man and the world, consequence; plot, closure; transforma-
between man and man, between man and tion; character, settings) and logic of ac-
himself” (Ricœur, 1991, p. 26–27) as well as tions (e. g. agent, motive, intention, goal,
“a representation […] about a structured
2 Another way of summarizing narrative stud-
time-course of particularized events […]
ies’ key issues is suggested by Luginbühl,
such that they introduce some sort of Schwab & Burger (2004) building on the
disruption or disequilibrium into a sto- work of Genette (1998): «Zentrale Fragen
ryworld involving human or human-like der Narrationstheorie sind die nach den
agents […] affected by the occurrences Instanzen, die über ein Ereignis berichten,
at issue” (Herman, 2009, p. XII). Wheth- also nach den Erzählern; nach den Figuren,
er it is as a mode of communication or a die in einer Erzählung vorkommen und zu
mode of representation, a narrative deals Wort kommen oder nicht; nach der zeit-
lichen Ordnung der Erzählung, nach den
with time and space, events and actions,
Perspektiven, aus welchen das Geschehen
erzählt wird; nach dem Modus der Erzäh-
1 But see the point made by Georgakopoulou lung (Distanz der Erzählung zur Geschichte,
(2007) about the ideologies surrounding the Blickwinkel auf die Geschichte)» (Luginbühl,
idea of proper narrative. Schwab & Burger 2004, p. 17–18).Merminod / Studies in Communication Sciences 18.1 (2018), pp. 135–150 137
means) but also to communication (e. g. but tends to concentrate in the first sentence.
narrator/narratee; fact/fiction; focaliza- The central action of the news story is told
tion; evaluation; configuration) and genre in non-chronological order, with result pre-
theories (e. g. myth, tale, novel, anecdote, sented first followed by a complex recycling
joke). The narrative descriptive apparatus through various time zones down through the
has been used to study news, especial- story. (Bell, 1994, p. 107)
ly hard news – the newsworkers’ “staple
product” (Bell, 1991, p. 14) – and, as accu- As for the studies examining the chains
rately underlined by Montgomery (2007), of texts, they have described the narrative
mainly written news. Nevertheless, if some dynamics that arise from text to text when
studies have been explicitly based on nar- covering developing or iterative events
rative theories (e. g. Bell, 1991; Luginbühl, (Baroni, Revaz & Pahud, 2006; Revaz &
Schwab & Burger, 2004), others have only Baroni, 2007; Revaz, Pahud & Baroni, 2007,
loosely referred to them or have drawn 2008, 2009; Baroni, 2016; Revaz, 2009a,
on our common understanding of what 2009b). More precisely, these approaches
a story is (e. g. Tuchman, 1976; Schudson, have been twofold: on the one hand, they
1982). have focused on how textual chains are
sensitive to the development of events; on
1.2 Narrative approaches to news the other hand, they have worked on how
Apart from perspectives that have con- the upstream and downstream of events
sidered narrative journalism as a specif- are depicted in single texts.
ic genre emphasizing literary aesthetics, The studies concerning the identifi-
creativity and authorhood (see Dardenne, cation of news events can also be divided
2005; Tenenboim-Weinblatt, 2009; Va- into two trends. On the one hand, some
noost, 2013), narrative approaches to studies have analysed how stories frame
news have mainly addressed two issues: news events (Tuchman, 1976, 1978; Bird &
the textualisation of news items relating to Dardennes, 1988, 2009; Lule, 2001). On
narrative structures and the identification the other hand, there are studies that have
of news events relating to narrative frames. looked at how news participates in the
Regarding the textualisation of news, creation of an “abstract text” about par-
studies have focused either on the anal- ticular events and enables the strength-
ysis of isolated texts or on the analysis ening or the countering of shared master
of chains of texts. The studies analysing narratives (Mouillaud & Tétu, 1989; Tétu,
isolated texts or groups of texts isolated 2000; Dubied, 2004; Arquenbourg, 2005;
from each other have described how news Lits, 2008). Both trends have drawn on
items are organized regarding the event diverse notions, such as frame (Goffman,
they cover (Barthes, 1964; Van Dijk, 1983, 1974), typification (Schütz, 1953), myth
1985, 1986, 1988a, 1988b; Bell, 1991, 1994, (Malinowski, 1926; Barthes, 1957; Eliade,
1998; Jamet & Jannet, 1999; Ungerer, 2001; 1963; Lévi-Strauss, 1964, 1967, 1968, 1971)
Montgomery, 2005, 2007; Adam, 2011). and configuration (Ricœur, 1983, 1984,
Drawing mainly on structural linguistics, 1985). Originating from various traditions,
psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics, such notions have been used to grasp
these approaches have generally distin- what underpins the narrative organisation
guished news stories from “personal/face- of the interpretation of events in terms of
to-face/everyday” stories, and have tend- causality and consequence, agents and
ed to compare the former with the latter, circumstances, motives and intentions,
as illustrated by Allan Bell’s studies making purposes and responsibilities, values and
use of the work of Labov on oral narratives ideologies. Most of these notions favour an
of personal experience: atemporal vision of narrative, understood
as a network of relations between different
In news, the abstract is obligatory not option- parameters (cause, consequence, agent,
al. Orientating and evaluative material occurs etc.), similar to the Greimasian actantial
in a similar fashion to personal narratives, model (Greimas, 1966) that suggests a log-138 Merminod / Studies in Communication Sciences 18.1 (2018), pp. 135–150
ic of narrative action relating to a network by tracking the use of the word « histoire »
of relationships between actantial func- (story) in a newsroom.
tions. The Ricœurian notion of configura-
tion nevertheless entails a temporal fea- 1.3 Data and methods
ture that takes into account the changing
nature of events, the idea that a narrative is 1.3.1 Data
oriented toward its end, its closure. To examine the use of the word « histoire »
Both the textualisation and identifi- by media practitioners, the paper draws
cation approaches have underlined some on a data set collected in the newsrooms of
crucial aspects of news, such as a prefer- the Swiss Public Broadcasting Corporation
ence for a textualisation of events that in 2007 within the Research Project Idée
presents consequences first (emphasiz- Suisse 3. The data set gathers interviews
ing the role of a particular part of news with journalists, computer logs of their
texts, the lead) and the pervasiveness of daily writing activities and audio-visual
prototypical storylines. However, as illu- recordings of news production processes,
minating as they are, these approaches such as editorial conferences, writing ses-
have some limitations when the matter at sions and cutting-room activities. During
issue is to know whether or not journalists their fieldwork, Perrin and colleagues fol-
are telling stories. Firstly, these approach- lowed several journalists, each one during
es have mainly focused on events rather one week, day-to-day, from the morning to
than on the rendering of experience or on the evening.
world-making. Secondly, these approach- The paper focuses on the case of a
es have mainly studied the final product Swiss-French television’s journalist (CA),
and do not enable us to apprehend the who was followed from Monday March 5
narrative practices that participate in the to Friday March 9. More precisely, it focus-
process of news production. Thirdly, if es on two events: a preliminary interview
newsroom ethnography has shed light with CA on Monday and a session of col-
on what happens backstage, the lack of laborative work on Wednesday involving
linguistic and fine-grained interactional CA and a cutter. In the preliminary inter-
analysis prevents us from understanding view, which lasts 45 minutes, the jour-
precisely how, when and why news events nalist shares his professional credo with
are or are not identified relating to narra- a researcher. The session of collaborative
tive frames as well as when, how and why work recorded on Wednesday documents
news items are or are not designed as nar- the way the journalist and the cutter are
rative structures. co-producing a news item about a plane
A way of overcoming these limitations crash. The recording lasts approximately
is to have a look at the narrative practices 1 hour 45 minutes.
and norms in the newsroom. To do so, we These 2 hours and 30 minutes of re-
have two loci of study. On the one hand, cording see 9 instances of the word « his-
we can track the sites of narrative en- toire », which were uttered by the journal-
gagement in the newsroom, places where ist but not by the researcher or the cutter. It
journalists move into narrative activities, is worth mentioning that, during the three
where they are telling or handling stories morning editorial meetings (8:30, 9:15 and
in order to achieve their work of making 9:30) that preceded the co-production of
news (Perrin, 2013; Merminod & Burger, the plane crash news item, the word « his-
forthcoming). On the other hand, we can
track the metacommentaries that fore- 3 Funded by the Swiss National Science Foun-
ground a narrative orientation to news, dation, the research project Idée suisse:
Sprachpolitik, Sprachnorm und Sprachprax-
when journalists evaluate storying choices
is am Beispiel der SRG SSR (2005–2007) was
(Perrin, 2011; Merminod, 2016) or when part of a National Research Program, Lan-
they use a narrative-related lexicon. The guage Diversity and Linguistic Competence
paper aims to explore this latter aspect in Switzerland (NRP 56). See Perrin et al.
(2008) for a summary.Merminod / Studies in Communication Sciences 18.1 (2018), pp. 135–150 139
toire » was not uttered, at least not in rela- By doing so, the paper’s reflection is more
tion to this particular news item. broadly anchored in the Small Stories Re-
search, which aims, among other things,
1.3.2 Methods to “document local theories of what con-
The paper adopts the vantage point of stitutes a narrative and what the role of
Linguistic Ethnography (Rampton, May- narrative is in [a] specific communit[y]”
bin & Roberts, 2015) and, more precisely, (Georgakopoulou, 2007, p. 21), by “ar-
that of a linguistic ethnographic approach gu[ing] for the inclusion of emic criteria in
to news production (e. g. Van Hout & Ja- definitions of narrative as complementing
cobs, 2008; Cotter, 2010; News Text & Talk and even overriding etic criteria” (Georga-
Research Group, 2011; Perrin, 2013; Van kopoulou, 2015, p. 260).
Hout, 2015; Jacobs, 2017; Burger 2018). It
combines the insights of an ethnograph-
ic knowledge of what happens in a news- 2 Saying « histoire » in a
room with a fine-grained linguistic analy- television newsroom
sis of actual news-making processes and
news products. The case study is divided into two parts.
Drawing on the work of Stokoe and Firstly, it analyses the journalist’s usage
Edwards (2006) on story formulations, of « histoire » to reflect on broadcast news
the paper tracks the instances of the word production during the preliminary inter-
« histoire » with a keen interest in “the se- view. Secondly, it examines the journalist’s
quential organization of such formula- usage of « histoire » to produce a broadcast
tions – their occasioning, action-orien- news item in the physical space of a cut-
tation and uptake –” (Stokoe & Edwards, ting-room.
2006, p. 58) as well as “their action-orien-
tation and the way they are shaped for the 2.1 Saying « histoire » to reflect on
occasions of their production” (Stokoe & broadcast news production
Edwards, 2006, p. 56). Nevertheless, as The first excerpt comes from the prelimi-
claimed by Deppermann, “[e]thnograph- nary interview between journalist CA and
ic background is needed to discover how the researcher. Prompted by the research-
interactional histories are reflected by the er to talk about the goals of a TV news bul-
choice of a formulation, […] how institu- letin, CA mentions the risks of drifts relat-
tional agendas and professional knowl- ing to the editorial choices. The researcher
edge are indexed by formulations” (Dep- asks him to follow up on this (l.1). First, the
perman, 2011, p. 120). The analysis of story journalist talks about the non-coverage of
formulations is thus led by two questions: iterative bad news, such as never-ending
“why that now?” (Schegloff & Sacks, 1973) armed conflicts4. Then, he describes an-
and “what is it that’s going on here?” (Goff- other type of drift: favouring good news at
man, 1974; also Scollon, 1998). The former the end of the news bulletin (l.2–7).
helps us to take into account the sequen- In the excerpt, the journalist first
tial emergence of the word « histoire », the suggests a characterisation of good news
latter enables us to grasp the social prac- (l.4–7), and then gives an example of good
tices that converge during its moment of news (l.8–14). « Histoire » appears twice
emergence. (l.5 and l.6) in a chain of reformulations,
Because we assume that “metalan- ending with a relative clause that specifies
guage can work at an ideological level, and the function of such stories (l.6: “which
influence people’s actions and priorities are appealing”). In both cases, « histoire »
in a wide range of ways” (Jaworski, Cou- is associated with derogatory qualifiers
pland & Galasinski, 2004, p. 3), our exam- (the adjectives petit and croquingnolesque,
ination of story formulations is not only the suffix -ette) as well as realized by a plu-
carried out to study the situated functions ral indefinite article (des) that enables a
of these formulations in the newsroom but
also to apprehend their social meanings. 4 This is not transcribed in excerpt 1.140 Merminod / Studies in Communication Sciences 18.1 (2018), pp. 135–150
Excerpt 1: “Good news, […] charming inite article – refers to a genre that corre-
anecdotes, even nice stories” sponds with soft news in contrast to hard
(March 5, 2007)a news (see Tuchman, 1973; Bell, 1991; Cot-
1R Tu peux donner un exemple ? […] Ce serait quoi une
ter, 2010, p. 135–145).
dérive? In excerpt 2, the researcher asks jour-
Can you give me an example? […] What is a drift? nalist CA about his news-writing routines
[…]
2J Une dérive possible aussi, je dirais, c’est : Excerpt 2: “To relay a story that I did not know”
A potential drift also, I would say, this is:
(March 5, 2007)
3 surtout dans les queues de journaux, enfin, les fins
de journal,
1R Est-ce qu’il y a […] des étapes types dans la rédac-
especially in the tails of bulletin, well, at the ends
tion d’un reportage?
of bulletin,
Are there any typical steps in the writing of a report?
4 il faut des images un peu de bonnes nouvelles, des […]
images,
2J D’abord, savoir de quoi je vais parler.
You need to have images of good news, images,
First of all, knowing what I’m going to talk about.
5 des petites historiettes, […]
charming anecdotes,
3 Il y a des sujets que je découvre […] deux, trois
6 voire des histoires croquingnolesques, qui heures avant le téléspectateur.
plaisent. There are topics I find out about two or three hours
even nice stories, which are appealing. before the audience does.
7 Voilà. Alors, avec des dérives, quoi. 4 Je n’ai pas la science infuse, et […] aucun journal-
That’s it . So, with drifts, well. iste ne l’a.
8 Je ne sais pas. I’m not all-knowing, and I don’t know any journalist
I don’t know. who is all-knowing.
9 Dernièrement, on m’a demandé de faire un truc sur 5 Donc, forcément, pour être capable de retransmettre
une femme une histoire
Recently, I have been asked to do a thing about a So, necessarily, to be able to relay a story
woman 6 que je ne connaissais pas […] moi-même trois
10 qui avait chanté pendant soixante heures en Corée, heures avant le téléspectateur
who had sung for 60 hours in Korea, that I did not know […] myself three hours before
the audience
11 dans un karaoké en Corée du Sud,
in a karaoke in South Korea, 7 qui lui, ne la connaît pas, il y a forcément une
méthode.
12 parce que son mari avait le cancer,
who don’t know about it, there is necessarily a
because her husband had cancer,
method.
13 enfin, pour lui donner du courage.
8 C’est ça qui fait le métier de journaliste: comment
well, to keep his spirits up.
rendre
14 Bon, là-dessus, eh bien, moi j’ai quelques doutes sur This is what makes the craft of journalist: how to
ce choix-là. make
Well, about it, well, I have some doubts about such
9 comestible, enfin, compréhensible, intelligible, une
a choice.
histoire
R = Researcher; J = Journalist. a story edible, well, understandable, intelligible
a
Due to the vast amount of data and the topic at issue, the tran- 10 dans un cadre donné. Et ce cadre, il est clair.
scripts do not display all the phenomena observed in talk-in-inter- in a given framework. And this framework is clear.
action (e. g. rising/falling intonations, hesitations or overlaps). Our
11 Ce n’est pas cinq mille ou six signes dans un journal.
data is originally in French. We provide an interlinear translation in
This is not five thousand or six thousand characters
English. Apart from excerpts 4 and 8, we use the following conven-
in a newspaper.
tions: the speaker’s name is indicated on the left; the numbers on
the left refer to the transcribed lines; *word* = the speaker is read- 12 Mais c’est à la télévision. C’est une minute, une
ing; (…) = pause; […] = data not transcribed; ((word)) = description; minute quinze
xxx = inaudible talk. But this is on television, this is one minute, one
minute fifteen seconds,
13 une minute trente, deux minutes éventuellement.
Voilà.
“refer[ence] to particular elements only one minute thirty, two minutes maybe. That’s it.
identified by the fact that they are part of
the class denoted by the noun” (Riegel,
Pellat & Rioul, 2014, p. 293, our transla- (l.1). In his answer, the journalist frames
tion). Thus, « histoire » – in association the need for a method.
with the derogatory forms and the indef-Merminod / Studies in Communication Sciences 18.1 (2018), pp. 135–150 141
According to the journalist, a news-writ- The journalist is portraying these hier-
ing method is needed for three reasons: archical relationships through a construct-
his epistemic status, he is not all-knowing ed dialogue (Tannen, 2007) that allows him
(l.4); the task at hand, to relay a story (l.5); to differentiate his position as reporter
the genre, a television news (l.10–13). « His- from that of producer. Of particular inter-
toire » appears twice: firstly, relating to an est for us is the fact that « histoire » appears
epistemic issue (knowing/not knowing, in a talk simulating an interaction taking
l.5–7); secondly, relating to an informa- place in the newsroom. According to jour-
tion processing issue (as indicated by the nalist CA’s simulation, it does not seem
“assimilation” adjectives understandable, to be implausible to encounter the word
intelligible and edible). In both instances, « histoire » in the actual talk of media prac-
« histoire » refers to an already existing set titioners engaged in their daily routine. In
of information that is caught up in specif- the animation of the newsroom dialogue
ic constraints relating to news production made by the journalist, « histoire » refers
as well as news broadcasting. « Histoire » neither to a genre (excerpt 1), nor to a set
is thus differentiated from the material of information (excerpt 2) but rather to the
framework in which it is realised (l.10–13). semiotic product he made, as indicated by
To sum up, in excerpt 2, « histoire » refers the use of a “production” verb (l.5: built) as
to a set of information lifted from a context well as the first person markers (l.5: I have,
to another. my). It is worth emphasizing that “story”
Excerpt 3 displays another meaning seems to refer to a semiotic realization,
of « histoire ». Here, the researcher inter- entangling verbal and audio-visual means,
rogates the journalist about his collabora- and not only to a symbolic one.
tion network in the workplace. Apart from To sum up, the use of « histoire » en-
cutters and nearby colleagues, journalist ables the journalist to describe diverse as-
CA talks about his contacts with the hier- pects of his work, ranging from news clas-
archy and, more precisely, the producer of sifications and ethical issues to epistemic
the news bulletin. statuses and practical concerns.
Excerpt 3: “I have already completely built my 2.2 Saying « histoire » to produce a
story” (March 5, 2007) broadcast news item
The second part of the case study focus-
1R Avec qui est-ce que tu discutes des reportages ? es on the production of a television news
Who do you speak to about reports? item about the crash of an aircraft in Indo-
[…]
nesia on March 7, 2007 for the news bulle-
2J Il peut arriver que le chef d’édition me dit : « Mais tu
as vu ces images
tin’s noon edition (see excerpt 4).
It can happen that the producer tells me: “Did you see More precisely, we focus on the inter-
this footage action between journalist CA and a cutter
3 qui arrivent à 19:15? Il faut absolument ça au début. in the cutting-room. Our analysis is struc-
that come in at 7:15 pm? You absolutely have to put tured in three moments that correspond
it in the beginning.
with the use of « histoire » before (2.2.1.),
4 C’est les dernières ». Je dis : « Ecoute, ça ne va pas.
Ecoute, tu as vu ça ?
during (2.2.2.) and after (2.2.3.) the writing
This is the latest one”. I say: “Listen, no way. Listen, of the news item.
did you see that?
5 Ecoute, j’ai déjà tout construit mon histoire. 2.2.1 Saying « histoire » before the writing
Listen, I have already completely built my story. Before beginning the writing, the jour-
6 Le montage est déjà à trois quart terminé ». nalist and the cutter swing between two
The cutting is already almost done.”
segments of footage that could be used in
7 Là, il peut y avoir une interaction, à la limite, des fois,
autoritaire,
the opening of the news item (Merminod,
At that point, there can be an interaction, sometimes 2016). Then, they negotiate its structuring
nearly authoritarian, (excerpt 5, below).
8 mais il peut y avoir des discussions. The temporary structuring of the
but we can have a chat. news items displays the following parts:142 Merminod / Studies in Communication Sciences 18.1 (2018), pp. 135–150
Excerpt 4: Yogyakarta news report (March 7, Excerpt 5: “And we tell a little bit of the story”
2007, 12:45–12:48 pm) (March 7, 2007, 11:00-11:01 a.m.)
Anc1 We begin with news from another 1J Bon, on va commencer quelque chose une scène
aviation catastrophe this morning comme ça.
in Indonesia.
So, we’re going to start with something like a scene
like this.
2 ((J does a large circular movement with his hand))
Anc2 It is a Boeing 737 of the national 3C J’ai quand même envie de commencer avec le gars
company Garuda that crashed qui court, quoi,
upon landing on the island of In my opinion, we should start with the guy who is
Java killing about twenty people. running, well,
Most of the passengers were
Indonesians but a delegation of 4 et puis on laisse après dix secondes.
Australian diplomats and journal- and then we leave ten seconds after.
ists was also on board. Warning:
some footage might be shocking. 5J Voilà, l’avion popoa, les gens qui s’enfuient, qui
They are commentated on by CA. arrivent
Right, the plane popo, the people running away,
who manage
Over A few moments after the crash, 6 à se sauver, le sonore du
the desperate escape, far from the to save themselves, the audio of
Boeing, for one of the survivors.
7C Ouais.
This passenger is not yet safe but
his camera is on. No fewer than Yeah.
one hundred and twelve passen- 8J de la sécurité de l’aé-, du gardien de l’aéroport qui
gers, among the one hundred dit :
and thirty-three transported by
of the security of the air-, of the security guard of the
the Indonesian company Garuda,
survived, and six out of seven airport who says:
members of the crew. But many 9C C’est dingue, regarde les gens!
are injured. The statement of a That’s crazy, look at the people!
security officer at the airport in
Yogyakarta. 10 J « J’ai vu les gens réussir à se casser ».
Witt I heard two explosions and I “I saw people managing to get out of there.”
pulled four people out of the air- 11 Puis, après, on raconte un peu l’histoire, hein ?
plane, safe and sound. About thir- And then we tell a little bit of the story, isn’t it?
ty passengers were already out-
side, and they too were all alive. 12 C Ils sont complétement sonnés, quoi. Regarde comme
ils marchent, quoi.
They are completely knocked out. Look how they are
Over Twenty-one people, however,
did not manage to get out of the walking.
airplane and died, incinerated, 13 C’est dingue, hein ?
trapped by the flames in the That’s crazy, no?
front part of the airplane. At the
moment of the landing, the pas- 13 J Non mais dis hein, il y a de quoi, hein ?
sengers had been warned that Seriously, that’s something, no?
the Boeing was going to encoun-
ter strong turbulence. It hit the 14 C Complétement choqués, hein ?
runway at excessive speed. The Completely shocked, isn’t it?
airplane rebounded on the tarmac J = Journalist; C = Cutter.
twice before crashing violently
into a rice field three hundred
a
Either this sound imitates the plane’s trajectory in the rice field or it
meters away and burning up means “and so on and so forth.”
completely.
Anc1 = Newsreader 1; Anc2 = Newsreader 2; Over = Voice Over (jour-
nalist CA); Wit = Witness (an Indonesian security guard). in the beginning of the final news items,
before the account of the security guard,
which itself matches part D. This allows us
A. the images of the guy who is running to hypothesize that part E, only labelled
(l.3), B. the images of the plane (l.5), C. the as “the story” (excerpt 5, l.11) in the tem-
images of the people running away and porary structuring, corresponds with the
saving themselves (l.5–6), D. the audio of recounting of the crash proceedings (ex-
the security guard (l.6, l.8, l.10), E. the re- cerpt 4: “At the moment of landing … and
counting of the story (l.11). Actually, the burning up completely.”). Thus, it seems
temporary structuring corresponds more that « histoire » refers to the series of events
or less with the final structure of the news that led to the crash. If there are images of
item (see excerpt 4). Parts A to C appear the consequences of the crash (people flee-Merminod / Studies in Communication Sciences 18.1 (2018), pp. 135–150 143
ing and saving themselves, the plane burn- writing phases. Both segments display a
ing, etc.), there are no images of the crash similar syntactic format, a right disloca-
itself. Thus, at this specific moment of the tion featuring a demonstrative determin-
news production, the use of « histoire », or er. Right dislocation is usually used in
more precisely of « raconter l’histoire », en- French talk-in-interaction as a routinized
ables the journalist to contrast a part that format for emphasising an assessment
can be only verbally recounted with parts (Pekarek Doehler, De Stefani & Horlacher,
that can be illustrated with some prefab- 2015, p. 133–160). This is the case for both
ricated material. Besides, the association instances: the first case sees a negative as-
of « histoire » with a definite article (l.11: l’) sessment while the second sees a positive
and the absence of any further specifica- one. Let’s examine them in turn.
tion tend to place the crash episode as the In excerpt 6, the practitioners have
sole story or, at least, as the central one. agreed on how the report would begin.
They work separately in silence (l.1), with-
2.2.2 Saying « histoire » during out looking at each other. The journalist
the writing 5 is looking for a development that fits with
« Histoire » is then used twice during the
writing of the news item’s first segment:
“A few moments after the crash, the des- Excerpt 6: “Anyway, it is implausible, that story
perate escape, away from the Boeing, for of shit” (March 7, 2007, 11:11 a. m.)
one of the survivors. This passenger is not 1 (14)
yet safe but his camera is on.” The writing 2J C’est quand même invraisemblable
of the news item’s first segment is divided Anyway, it is implausible,
into three moments (Merminod, 2016): 3 cette histoire de merde(s).
that story of shit(s).
1 From 11:09 to 11:10: “the desperate es- 4 (11)
cape,” “far from the Boeing” and “of one 5C ((speaking to his machine)) Arrête de pomper !
of the survivors.” ((speaking to his machine)) Stop pumping!
Result: “The desperate escape far from 6 (6)
the Boeing of one of the survivors.” 7J ((turning towards C)) On dit caméra au poing ?
2 From 11:12 to 11:13: “his camera is on” ((turning towards C)) Can we say handheld camera?
and “a few moments after the crash.”
Result: “A few moments after the crash,
the desperate escape far from the Boe-
ing of one of the survivors. His camera
is on.” his first sentence: “The desperate escape,
3 From 11:15 to 11:17: “this passenger is away from the Boeing, for one of the sur-
not yet safe” and “but.” vivors.”
Result: “A few moments after the crash, Excerpts 6 shows these “circumstances in
the desperate escape far from the Boe- which we will audibly address statements
ing of one of the survivors. This passen- to ourselves, blurt out imprecations, and
ger is not yet safe but his camera is on.” utter ‘response cries,’ such as, Oops!, Eek!,
and the like […], we will seek some re-
The first « histoire » (“it is implausible, that sponse from those who can hear us, but
story of shit[s],” excerpt 6, l.2–3) appears at not a specific reply. No doubt the intent
11:11 between the first and second writing is to provide information to everyone in
phases; the second « histoire » (“it is unbe- range, but without taking the conversa-
lievable, that story,” excerpt 7, l. 6) emerg- tional floor to do so. What is sought is not
es at 11:14 between the second and third hearers but overhearers, albeit intended
5 The writing of the news item has been diver-
ones” (Goffman, 1981, p. 136–138). The
sly analysed in previous works (see Burger, journalist, looking to develop his text, dis-
2011; Perrin, 2013; Merminod, 2016; Zampa, plays his reflexive activity (l.2–3) while the
2017; Merminod & Burger, forthcoming).144 Merminod / Studies in Communication Sciences 18.1 (2018), pp. 135–150
cutter displays the technical problems he In light of this event, « histoire de
has with his machine (l.5). merde(s) » rather seems to mean “story
By comparison with the other instanc- about shit(s),” “shit” being the series of
es, the meaning of « histoire » in excerpt 6 disasters experienced by Indonesia back
seems at first to be abstruse for an exter- then. In that case, « histoire » appears to re-
nal observer. « Histoire de merde(s) » could fer to a frame that the journalist chose not
mean “shitty story.” Nevertheless, neither to select.
the journalist’s tone, nor his stance during Another instance of « histoire » ap-
the overall news production is consistent pears a few minutes later. The journalist
with such an assumption. Besides, it is dif- and the cutter are probing different de-
ficult to know what « histoire de merde(s) » scriptions of the actions carried out by the
is referring to: the demonstrative deter- individual filming the event (Merminod &
miner (l.3: cette) can point at the event the Burger, forthcoming). The journalist has
journalist is writing about, at the writing already written a text that describes what
itself as well as at something completely happened in the footage: “A few moments
different. Actually, « histoire de merde(s) » after the crash, the desperate escape, away
rather seems to be uttered in relationship from the Boeing, for one of the survivors.
with a previous event, an event that hap- His camera is on.” He is now wondering
pened two hours earlier in the newsroom, whether or not he has to insist on the fact
just between the 9:15 am and 9:30 am edi- that such a critical moment (fleeing from
torial meetings. a plane after a crash) has been recorded
The crash story was assigned to jour- (l.4–5).
nalist CA during the 9:15 am meeting. In excerpt 7, « histoire », associated
Further to this, the journalist and his col- with a demonstrative determiner (l.6) and
leagues had a break in the same room. Two being the subject of an assessment, refers
of his colleagues began to list the many obviously to the experience of the individ-
disasters hitting Indonesia back then: tsu- ual filming the scene. It is worth noting
nami, earthquake, terrorism, plane crash, that the story’s assessment is similar to the
mudslide, flooding. Then, playfully, they assessments expressed during the 9:15 am
suggested different headlines, such as meeting, the first time the journalist heard
“how can one be Indonesian?,” and insist- about the escape experience and its imag-
ed on the following one several times: “In- es. At 9:15 am, while the international desk
donesia, shit(s) funnel of the world,” even editor was commenting on the notewor-
calling out to the international desk editor thiness of the footage, a journalist from
and emphasizing the inappropriateness the international desk observed: “it is un-
of such a headline. Journalist CA did not believable that people managed to get out
participate in their playful framing of the of the plane like that”; having insisted on
events but observed it. Then, he joined the way it was shot, the desk editor replied:
his colleagues’ conversation and listed “yes it is unbelievable.” It seems that, in ex-
with them the series of disasters: tsuna- cerpt 7 as well as in the 9:15 am meeting,
mi, H5N1, mudslide, terrorism, ferryboat the assessment of the experience is mixed
accident, plane crash. After that, journalist up with an assessment of the footage that
CA brought to their attention the fact that television news bulletin is. The “shits’ fun-
the researchers’ camera was still running. nel” event, taking place between two sched-
Underlining again the inappropriateness uled events that punctuate the newsroom
of their framing, his two colleagues replied official business, shows, in a way, the back-
by alluding to the possibility that the re- stage in the backstage: “Here costumes and
cording would leak out on YouTube6. other parts of personal front may be adjust-
ed and scrutinized for flaws. Here the team
6 Happily, the researchers were allowed to can run through its performance, checking
keep the recording. This event is interesting for offending expressions when no one is
in many respects. The newsroom is some- present to be affronted by them […]. Here
times considered as a backstage region in the performer can relax” (Goffman, 1959,
contrast to the public performance that a p. 115).Merminod / Studies in Communication Sciences 18.1 (2018), pp. 135–150 145
Excerpt 7: “It is unbelievable, that story” 2.2.3 Saying « histoire » after the writing
(March 7, 2007, 11:13-11:14 a. m.) « Histoire » is used a last time while
the news-making production process
1J ((looking at his screen)) *Quelques instants après
le crash, comes to an end. At 12:20 pm, in the cut-
((looking at his screen)) *A few moments after the ting-room, the producer of the evening
crash, edition mentions the fact that a Swiss-Ital-
2 la fuite éperdue, loin du Boeing, de l’un des sur- ian radio journalist was in the plane and
vivants.
the desperate escape, far from the Boeing, for one
was able to phone the radio station to re-
of the survivors. cord an account of his experience. Jour-
3 Sa camera est enclenchée. Virgule* euh nalist CA decides not to include the ac-
His camera is on. Comma* er count in the noon report. Nevertheless,
4 Toute la scène est immortalisée. at 12:28 pm, having recorded the news
The whole scene has been captured. item’s voice-over, he begins to look for the
5 ((slightly leaning towards C)) Il faut le dire, non? Ça, Swiss-Italian radio journalist’s account the
quand même.
((slightly leaning towards C)) We must say it, no?
producer previously mentioned. Firstly,
This, anyway. the journalist checks the news wires, typ-
Looking at his screen, during 18 sec, J m
umbles ing in his search engine « indonésie » (In-
words he has already written. donesia) and « tessinois » (Swiss-Italian),
6J ((turning towards C)) C’est incroyable, cette histoire. but he finds nothing. Then, at 12:29 pm,
((turning towards C)) It is unbelievable, that story. he goes on the broadcasting corporation
7C Ouais, c’est ((leaning back and looking at his website (tsr.ch), which devotes one page of
screen)).
Yeah, that’s ((leaning back and looking at his
the online news edition to the plane crash.
screen)). The lead and the first paragraph of the
Looking at his screen, J mumbles during 12 sec. webpage refer to the Swiss-Italian journal-
8J Il faut faire attention de pas avoir de jugement de ist (below, an English translation of a part
valeur. of the webpage):
We have to be cautious not to make value judg-
ments.
9 Leaning forward, C starts his work on the footage Excerpt 8: TSR online news edition about the
again Yogyakarta crash (March 7, 2007)
10 C’est absolument incroyable, ouais.
It is absolutely unbelievable, yeah. Crash in Indonesia: Around Twenty Dead
07.03.2007 07:29
A Boeing 737, which transported 140 persons, caught fire by
failing to land on Wednesday on the island of Java. […] A
shows it. In a way, the cutter’s reaction, ac- Swiss-Italian radio journalist survived the crash.
knowledging the journalist’s assessment Alessandro Bertelotti is a RSI [Swiss-Italian Radio] correspondent
(l.7) and even repeating it (l.10: “it is abso- for the Far East. According to him, the reason for the crash was the
excessive speed at the moment of landing.
lutely unbelievable”) while continuously […]
looking at the footage, tends to strengthen On this topic
this blending. RSR [Swiss-French Radio] – The report of Solenne Honorine –
March 7. Morning Edition.
To sum up, during the writing, « his-
toire » appears twice: on the one hand, the
journalist refers to a frame that locates the The journalist finds a mention of the
crash as an instance in a series of tragic Swiss-Italian journalist’s experience on the
events and relates to a master narrative website but he does not find the audio re-
about Indonesia; on the other hand, the cording of his account. On the other hand,
journalist refers to an event that is con- the webpage provides him with a report
sidered to be noteworthy owing to the fact by Solenne Honorine, a Swiss-French ra-
that the semiotic material bears witness to dio correspondent in Jakarta. From 12:31
the unusual experience of fleeing from a to 12:32 pm, the journalist listens to the
crashed plane. Although different, the two report. Further to this, the journalist com-
assessments echo what has been said by ments on what he has (not) found on the
colleagues before the actual writing of the website.
news item.146 Merminod / Studies in Communication Sciences 18.1 (2018), pp. 135–150
Excerpt 9: “That story of the Swiss-Italian 3 Conclusion
journalist” (March 7, 2007, 12:32–
12:33 p. m.) This article has examined how, when and
1J Oh, pff ((sigh)).
why the word « histoire » is used in the con-
Oh, pff ((sigh)). text of newsroom activities. It has shown
During 17 sec., J looks at his screen, then at C’s the presence of three different meanings
screen, then at his own again. of « histoire »: « histoire » as a genre, « his-
2J Bon. (…) Qu’est-ce que xxx toire » as a set of information and « his-
Well. (…) What xxx toire » as a semiotic product. If these three
3 cette histoire du journaliste tessinois meanings emerged when the journalist
that story of the Swiss-Italian journalist
reflected on broadcast news production,
4 Mais enfin, bon, xxx.
But anyway, well, xxx.
the actual news production process fa-
voured the use of « histoire » as a set of
5 Il y a le témoignage d’une correspondante à Jakarta
There is the account of a correspondent in Jakarta information. During the broadcast news
6 de la télé ro-, de la radio romande. production, the journalist used « histoire »
of the Swiss-French TV, of the Swiss-French Radio. before, during and after the writing of the
7 Mais pas particulièrement intéressant. news item. « Histoire » enables him to dis-
But not really interesting. tinguish information conveyed by differ-
ent semiotic means as well as to underline
In excerpt 9, the journalist is still wear- the (ir)relevance of particular production
ing the headphones he used to listen to choices. « Histoire » referred to particular
the French correspondent’s report, and is events but also to individual experiences
looking only at the screens when talking. and journalistic frames. Regarding the ref-
As for the cutter, he is working on the re- erence to events, it concerned the central
port’s soundtrack and does not pay at- event (the crash) as well as some back-
tention to the journalist’s talk. Both the ground information (causes, consequenc-
practitioners appear to be focused only on es). It was further used not only to refer to
their own tasks. The noises coming from what happened in the world but also to
the soundtrack, as well as the fact that the what happens in the newsroom.
journalist mumbles, make the beginning The case study provides us with a bet-
of this part (l.2) difficult to transcribe ac- ter understanding of the use of the narra-
curately. At line 3, « histoire » is associat- tive lexicon in the newsroom and allows
ed with a demonstrative determiner (l.3: us to reconsider some of the assumptions
cette) and a prepositional group (l.3: “of surrounding the narrative nature of news.
the Swiss-Italian journalist”): thus, it does It echoes and puts into perspective the
not refer to the story recounted by the statement of Tuchman:
Swiss-Italian journalist but rather to the
story about him. More precisely, because [A]t least in part, reporters may speak of sto-
of its twofold specification through a de- ries among themselves rather than about
ictic marker and a description, « histoire » events. They may see the everyday world and
can refer to the experience of the journal- its supporting documents in terms of the
ist-survivor as well as to its previous men- product they are to manufacture – a news sto-
tions by the producer and on the website. ry. (Tuchman, 1976, p. 95)
To summarize briefly the analyses
carried out in the second part of our case More than seeing the world in terms of a
study, we found that « histoire » is used as news story, journalists navigate between
a reflexive means, enabling the journalist different stories. In other words, they sort
to orient himself in the very practical tasks through narrative configurations that vary
entailed by the production of a multimod- in terms of spatiotemporal and experi-
al artefact, such as structuring the news ential extensions. Theses narrative con-
item or assessing available frames, semi- figurations orient the journalists in their
otic resources and sources. everyday work and, at the same time, are
constantly assessed by the latter in view ofMerminod / Studies in Communication Sciences 18.1 (2018), pp. 135–150 147
the tasks at hand. Thus, if the case study Acknowledgement
corroborates the idea that the newsroom
is full of stories that make news, it leads This research was supported by a grant
us to go beyond the myth of journalistic from the Swiss National Science Founda-
storytelling, by taking into account the lo- tion (P1LAP1_164898).
cal rationalities that, as exemplified here, This paper has greatly benefit-
ground the use of « histoire » (“story”). ed from discussions with Alexandra
Story formulations in the newsroom Georgakopoulou. I’m also grateful to the
still remain largely under-explored, and anonymous reviewers and the editors of
we would like to emphasize the need for the thematic section. All caveat apply.
further investigation that focuses not only
on one participant – the pattern of use we
described could be just idiosyncratic – but References
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Working Papers in Urban Language & Lit-You can also read
