TV News as Narrative 5
culture (Denzin, 1989; Ellis, 1997, 1999; Ellis & Bochner, 2000; Reed-Danahay, 1997;
Van Maanen, 1988). Autoethnography is “a form of self-narrative that places the self
within a social context….. both a method and a text” (Reed-Danahay, 1997, p.9).
Crawford (1996) views autoethnography as an integrative perspective that blurs
distinctions between self and other and juxtaposes the private with broader issues in the
process of describing the experience of the self. The purpose of autoethnography is to
examine, observe, and comment on self’s own performance (Hermer, 2000; Mintz, 1979).
The author concurrently examines the topic and describes his or her own emotions and
personal reactions to the subject under study (Banks & Banks, 2000; Bochner, 2000;
Ellis, 1993, 1995, 1997; Denzin, 1989; Ellis & Bochner, 2000). Personal ethnographies
include descriptions of the phenomenon under study, the experiences of the participant
while observing, and the actual process of writing about the experience. Parry (1991)
describes the process of writing personal stories as creating a way in which authors can
interact with and interpret their own lives. As autoethnographers, we also interact with
members of the culture under study and the readers of our stories.
Crawford (1996) believes that the ethnographer and the subjects co-construct the
experience and meaning together, rather than the researcher being an objective observer.
Not only are the subjects active participants in constructing the experience, so are the
readers. The readers are not passive receptacles, but are engaged as co-participants with
the author (Ellis & Bochner, 2000; Sparkes, 2000). Further, personal narratives invoke an
emotional and participatory response in the reader (Crapanzano, 1994). This concept of
co-construction can be extended and applied to TV news. Just as readers are engaged as
co-participants with the author (Crapanzano, 1994; Ellis & Bochner, 2000), viewers are
Convention