Tracing the narrativity of National Geographic feature articles in the light of evolving media landscapes. (December 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pflaeging, Jana
• Is Part Of: Discourse, context & media. Volume 20(2017)
• Page Start: 248
• Page End: 261
• Publication Date: 2017-12
• Subjects: Multimodality -- Genre evolution -- Audience design -- Narrativity -- Literary journalism -- National Geographic magazine -- Feature article -- Layout -- Image-caption-clusters; Discourse analysis -- Periodicals; Digital media -- Periodicals; Mass media and language -- Periodicals; Communication -- Periodicals; Communication; Digital media; Discourse analysis; Mass media and language; Periodicals; 401.4105
• DOI: 10.1016/j.dcm.2017.07.003
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2211-6958

Abstract

Abstract: This article seeks to trace the narrativization of the genre feature article as published in the National Geographic magazine over the past 100 years. I base my argumentation on the observation that image-caption-clusters have gained remarkable prominence in perception as they today often cover the entire layout space of a double-page, when they often appeared together with running text on a 1915 spread. Given that narrativization has always been a core popularization strategy of the magazine's journalistic practices, and is thus likely to be expected by its audience, the question arises whether perceptually prominent image-caption-clusters have increased in their degree of narrativity . In order to explore this question, I establish an interdisciplinary framework for a media linguistic analysis of literary journalism inspired by theorization in linguistics, literary studies, narratology and its cognitive branches. I proceed by exploring a corpus of altogether 15 National Geographic print feature articles (and their 304 image-caption-clusters) published in 1915, 1965, and 2015. I conclude this paper with a discussion of my findings. In particular, I draw on the framework of audience design and outline five main aspects magazine editors are at least likely to consider when making assumptions about their audience's genre expectations.