Contributions of Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutics to a theory of journalistic narrativity

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the narrative dimension of journalism based on the theoretical contributions of P. Ricoeur’s narrative hermeneutics. It is a theoretical essay in which the notion of journalistic narrative is approached in the light of the mediating operation of narration, developed between the experience of the events and the processes of reading and interpretation, through the entangling of a plot or intrigue. The argumentative line stresses at least three perceptions about the narrative character of journalism: first, that the narrative dimension of journalism is linked to the journalistic activity of storytelling; second, the defense of the journalistic narrative as a kind of modality, genre or textual and discursive structure; third, that the narrative quality of journalism threatens the construction of relations of referentiality with events, guided by the ideal of objectivity.