Order and Interpretation

A Narrative Perspective on Journalistic Discourse

Bibliographic Data

ID11486261
AuthorsRisto Kunelius (0000-0003-3511-3710, corresponding author)
Year1994
Volume9
Issue3
Pages249-270
Publication date1994-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of Communication (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0267-3231 • E-ISSN: 1460-3705
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0267323194009003002
OpenAlexW2090930867
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited20

I take as my starting point John Dewey's often quoted notion that society exists not only ` by communication' but also ` in transmission, in communication' (Dewey, 1916: 5). From this James Carey (1975) created a definition of communication as a form of society, `a process whereby reality is created, shared, modified and preserved'. Here we have a definition of communication that articulates and combines the historical experiences of rapidly developing western societies and their expansive means of communication. Journalism has for a long time enjoyed a special status in this continuous `recreation' of society. This article attempts to build a model to analyse the manner in which contemporary journalism `creates' society, how it `modifies' our perspective of the world in a manner that enables us to `share' some crucial meanings about reality. The model is based on the analysis of different sorts of narrative voices. It aims to capture some of the order of the contemporary discourse of journalism and to discuss both the synchronic and diachronic features of journalism. 1

Epistemology · Expansive · Interpretation (philosophy · Journalism · Linguistics · Media studies · Narrative · Order (exchange · Perspective (graphical · Sociology · Computer Science · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Media Studies and Communication · Philosophy · Rhetoric and Communication Studies