NEWS ON STAGE: Towards Re-configuring Journalism through Theatre to a Public Sphere

Abstract

ABSTRACT Journalism’s various crises have been well-documented, such as the decline in its credibility and active role in the democratic process, but constructive ideas to address them are far and few between. In an age of confused news literacy, this article presents evidence to show how face-to-face journalism might be successful in helping to re-establish its status, authority and truth-telling role in society. It reviews past and present relationships between journalism and theatre and uses them as a springboard to introduce the concept of “news on stage”. It makes historical connections between early formats of live news such as the town crier, through revolutionary theatre to today’s experiments in event journalism around the world. Using qualitative, empirical data from interviews and two case studies, the FT Weekend Festival and the Byline Festival, it examines whether and how such events offer ways of strengthening the relationship between news, public and performance, rebuilding communities of readers and/or activists. It configures a version of Habermas’s public space/sphere as a new locus for this kind of open journalism, performed to the public. The author concludes that journalism can benefit from such events and proposes practical models for presenting “news on stage” in the future.