Facts versus Stories: From Objective to Interpretive Reporting

Abstract

This article discusses journalism as a form of ‘vernacular literature’ and explores two traditions of reporting: the objective and the interpretive. In the first, emphasis is placed on the fact; in the second, on the story. In these terms, the article examines the transformation of the reporting style of the Sydney Morning Herald from objective reporting to interpretive reporting in the early 1980s. It examines the Herald's journalism from the 1950s to the 1970s as an exemplar of the objective style. It also comments on the linkage between these styles and differing rationales about the purpose of journalism in terms of market values and non-market values.

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