Journal October 2026 Special DISPUK Release_Full Version - Flipbook - Page 82
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overshadowed by the dominant narrative. This gives people the opportunity to
live in accordance with what they choose to stand for.
Journalism doesn9t have to encompass all of life, either. It can9t. It requires angles,
priorities, and omissions. A text that tries to tell the whole story often ends up
telling nothing at all, because the reader loses interest.
But perhaps journalism, inspired by narrative practice, can strive not to lock a
person into a single, unambiguous story. And perhaps, even when the angle is
sharp, we can keep in mind that it is not the whole truth about the person we are
writing about.
This is precisely where the outsider witness response is a surprisingly simple tool.
It doesn9t change the article9s form. It doesn9t significantly disrupt the deadline
workflow. But in the email to the source, we can choose to see more than just the
problem. We can echo values, hopes, intentions, agency, and what made an
impression on us.
And the best thing is that listening and writing are tools journalists already
master. Perhaps that is why it is not about learning something radically new, but
about applying these familiar tools with a different perspective than the dominant
professional logic: a perspective that focuses more on the person than on the
problem.
Feeling Closer to Yourself, Even as a Journalist
Our starting point for a course that combines journalism with narrative therapy
has been a desire to ensure that vulnerable sources do not stand alone when
facing the public.
However, through the courses—and in my own journalistic practice—we quickly
realized that this approach affects more than just the sources. Many of the
journalists we have taught describe how working with outsider witnessing letters
also affects them personally. The emails provide them with a sense of closure and
How Journalists Can Tell Stories Without Making Sources More Vulnerable
Journal of Contemporary Narrative Therapy, October 2026 Special Release, p. 71-82
www.journalcnt.com
