Television news, narrative conventions and national imagination

Bibliographic Data

ID7511117
AuthorsSabina Mihelj (0000-0002-8557-2504, Loughborough University, corresponding author), Veronika Bajt (0000-0002-6917-3255, PEACE INSTITUTE, LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA), Miloš Pankov (UNIVERSITY OF NOVI SAD, SERBIA,)
Year2009
Volume3
Issue1
Pages57-78
Publication date2009-02-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDiscourse & Communication (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1750-4813 • E-ISSN: 1750-4821
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1750481308098764
OpenAlexW2093849616
LanguageEN
Citations received20
References cited31

By and large, contemporary news stories are stories about a particular nation, told to an audience that is seen and addressed in national terms. However, the understanding of the exact ways in which national imagination becomes engrained in the narrative conventions of news reporting is still rather limited, in particular when it comes to audiovisual genres. This article aims to fill a part of this blank by examining the links between national imagination and the narrative conventions of television news. Building on existing debates about different modes of news reporting, the article distinguishes two distinct sets of narrative conventions at work in television news: one typically found in routine reporting, the other characteristic of crisis and celebratory reporting. It is argued that each of these two sets of conventions is tied to a different form of nationalism, and normally arises in a different political climate. Links between national imagination and narrative conventions vary accordingly. To demonstrate this, the article provides a comparative analysis of narrative structures in selected samples of television news bulletins broadcast in the early 1990s in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The concluding section reflects on the external validity of the chosen case study and surveys supportive evidence from four other relevant cases, drawn from the UK and Israel

Art · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Narrative structure · Nationalism · News media · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Media Studies and Communication · Philippine History and Culture · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · Law

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