Journalistic narratives after the audience turn: How new journalistic narratives address their audience

PhD project

On the internet, the old business model of mass media is no longer viable and journalism must seek the attention of the audience in the area of conflict between quality reporting and personalized experience. An audience turn has taken place, which is also changing journalistic narrative styles.Hendrik Kühn’s dissertation project examines how this is imagined and implemented in texts. To this end, qualitative interviews are conducted with pioneering journalists – who, due to their role, are heavily involved with the changing audience relationship and user-centered formats – and various journalistic offerings are analyzed using Gérard Genette’s narrative theory.The assumption: While journalistic narratives are primarily discussed in research under the heading of storytelling in special formats, audience-centricity can be manifested in a variety of ways in the narrative characteristics of pioneering journalistic products.