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Narrative Journalism
Thursday, January 10, 2002   By: Juan Paxety

Narrative Journalism is trendy. Hundreds of reporters flock to high fashion conferences to learn how to do it. But what is it?
One reporter who attended a conference at Harvard tries to tell us in this article.

More than 800 journalists, editors, and publishers assembled in the name of narrative, a fancy - if more powerful - word for story, much like the moniker pasta is "just a fancy word for spaghetti, macaroni and linguini," said Nora Ephron, the keynote speaker for the Nieman Narrative Journalism Conference. Decked in New York-chic black leather pants that she wore as comfortably as a second skin, the reporter-cum-award-winning screenwriter of savvy blockbusters such as "When Harry Met Sally" and "Sleepless in Seattle" called narrative the "mode du jour" to suggest the broad scope of work that falls under its province. Such breadth, she noted, makes narrative nonfiction tend to elude definition. Ephron's observations were confirmed by the procession of diverse, sometimes dazzling, speakers who would take the podium over the next two and a half days.

Ahhh, the vision of the broad scope of modern journalism filled with New York-chic macaroni in a sometimes dazzling "mode du jour" taking the podium.

  



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