Nieman Narrative Journalism Conference
On a late fall weekend in 2001, the Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism convened its first conference. More than 800 journalists traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts to take part in three days of interactive seminars, lectures and readings with many of the nation’s leading practitioners. By the end of the conference, there had been 26 seminars, four plenary sessions, and three group readings, and it is from words spoken at these sessions that Nieman Reports compiled the report that follows. — Melissa Ludtke
In terms of the narrative style, as a reporter and as a writer, your job is to immerse yourself in this world and then immerse your reader in it through your narrative in this almost transparent way. I would urge you to recognize that the world you’re immersing yourself in when you immerse yourself in the past is less familiar to you and less familiar to your readers. Your job, in immersing yourself in that culture, is a more challenging one, and your job in immersing your reader is therefore a more challenging one. But it is the same job. I don’t mean to suggest that there’s something fundamentally different about writing history. I think it is the same process, but a more challenging one.
