Storytelling as a Communication Tool in Journalism: Main Stages of Development

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in storytelling in journalism. The objectives of this study are to highlight the main stages in the development of storytelling as a communication tool in journalism. To achieve the proposed goal the following steps will be taken: The context, in which the term “storytelling” is used, will be determined; scientific publications examining storytelling as a communication tool will be analyzed; specific communicative markers of this tool as distinguished by researchers will be demonstrated; and main stages and patterns of storytelling development as a communication tool will be determined. A study of the developmental history of storytelling as a communication tool in journalism led to the conclusion that it can be divided into two main stages. The first is associated with the development of traditional storytelling in print media, radio, and television. The second is the development of digital storytelling. The principles of storytelling development in journalism are its recognition as a communication tool that can achieve both commercial and social goals, the increase and complication of means to influence the audience with new information technologies, and a paradigm shift from broadcasting to involving. Further studies can be conducted through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of research on storytelling in postSoviet spaces.


Introduction
Not sharing the fears of Walter Benjamin who believed that under the dominance of advertisement and information in the current world no place had been left for stories, because people had no experiences to share, Paul Ricoeur (2000) hoped for the birth of new forms of storytelling. He had all reason to believe that narrative functions could evolve, but never die out. The widespread emergence of storytelling in different spheres of communicative activity as a new trend serves as a confirmation of this thesis. Storytelling is the activity of telling or writing stories (Storytelling).
Storytelling is one of the oldest forms of social communication, from which a variety of religious and literary texts have then developed. In 1992, it was actualized as a term with new connotations by the CEO of Armstrong International David Armstrong. In his book "MBSA: Managing by Storying Around" (1992) he outlines the effectiveness of non-standard management through the usage of a new format of instructions that relies on real-life stories. It is currently used in other fields such as advertisement, PR, branding, marketing, and education, and it has found its way into journalism. Yet, many scholars consider storytelling to be an inherent part of journalism, beginning their publications with its history (Van Krieken, 2018).
Meanwhile, if we consider modern storytelling in journalism, significant differences from traditional journalistic narratives can be seen. It is evident that in the course of its historic development and due to socio-cultural and technological influences journalistic narrative has undergone a number of transformations that we consider worthy of closer consideration. Such an analysis can offer a way to sort out a certain confusion of terminology which exists in the storytelling discourse.
Taking into account the fact that this article considers the evolution of storytelling in journalism in the context of a socio-communicative approach, we should define it as a communication tool that uses an informational message as a story, and that is implemented by the communicant to increase the efficiency of perception and influence on the communicator. As already outlined, the purpose of this study is to highlight the main stages in the development of storytelling as a communication tool in journalism.

Methodology and Material
To achieve the proposed goal the following steps will be taken: The context, in which the term "storytelling" is used, will be determined; scientific publications examining storytelling as a communication tool will be analyzed; specific communicative markers of this tool as distinguished by researchers will be demonstrated; and main stages and patterns of storytelling development as a communication tool will be determined.

Results and Discussion
While examining the relationship between journalism and society, Daniel MacQuail focuses on the fact that beginning as early as the 18th-century dry reports of events were replaced by literarystyle coverage with a clearly accentuated opinion and stylistic richness, making it impossible to mark the journalist solely as an intermediary between news and reader. This, according to MacQuail, has become a prerequisite for the type-specific variety of journalistic texts (MacQuail, 2013: 23). Having examined the modern typological structure of journalistic genres used in post-Soviet spaces, it can be concluded that its division into informational, analytical, and artistic journalistic genres (Kim, 2004) does not give an unambiguous answer to the question of where storytelling is appropriate. A similar situation can be found in Western journalism with its division into "narrative writing" and "news writing". D. MacQuail has noted that news, too, exist as stories with their own plot, characters, heroes, villains, and a happy ending (MacQuail, 2013: 29). As such, the distinction between "narrative" and "news writing" is also merely nominal, further raising the question to which types of journalism storytelling can be attributed.
In current scientific discourse, an entire spectrum of varying opinions on the level of narrative in journalistic reports exists. For example, Walter Fisher's narrative paradigm establishes that all forms of human communication can be viewed as narration, which is perfectly encapsulated in the title of his book "Human Communication as Narration" (Fisher, 1987). In this regard, it is necessary to determine how exactly the stories in mass media differ from religious and literary stories. While religious stories are not only regarded as real, but also as holy by followers of the respective cults, literary stories are commonly perceived as fiction. Meanwhile, stories in mass media are presented as real (regardless of the fact whether they are such or not). Thus, mass media serves the function of circulating stories in society. It is regarded as an axiom by many scholars that the entirety of journalism represents exactly this process of telling stories (Varakin, 2014;Mitasheva & Varakin, 2017), and most find storytelling to be present in certain journalistic genres (Lampert, 2007). This raises the question, why then storytelling in journalism has become a prominent topic only in the last decades?
To answer this question we shall return to the context of the modern usage of this concept by David Armstrong, who considers storytelling to be an instrumentalist. Thus, the determining factor in storytelling is not the literary style of writing in itself (which often depended on the literary talent of a journalist), but its use for certain purposes, both internal (attracting new readers) and external (consolidating society around a certain idea).
If the potential of advertisement, PR, branding, and even education can be definitely determined as communication tools functioning under the assumption that a certain technical sequence of actions will lead to a pre-planned result, a somewhat different set of expectations has been formed around journalism in the professional sphere as well as in society itself. Journalism as a social institution serves, first and foremost, the function of collecting, editing and transmitting current information, and as such, its function is dominated by the informational aspect.
In course of the entire 20th century, a battle around establishing professional standards has been fought in the professional circles, resulting in the distinction between the journalism of facts (news journalism) and journalism of value judgments (authorial journalism). Thus, the following question arises: How legitimate is the use of storytelling as a communication tool specifically in relation to news journalism, since for authorial journalism a clear narrative is likely to be the norm?
Clearly, a consideration of the main developmental stages of journalistic storytelling as a communication tool is only possible in the context of media impact. It should be noted that although the technical process of communication didn't fully become the subject of theorization until the 20th century, its potential was already noted in rhetorical theories starting with Aristotle. This trend intensified with the invention of the printing press, launching mass production and distribution of messages in space and time. It became even more actualized with the emergence of press, which soon took over a worldview forming function. In their book "Fundamentals of Media Effects" (Bryant & Thompson, 2004), American researchers Jennings Bryant and Susan Thompson offer a historic overview of this process, beginning with the invention of the printing press. Using specific examples, the authors analyze the influence of media on public opinion, including instances of emerging panic in response to their messages, and the use of suggestion through mass media.
Thus, it can be concluded that the communicative potential of journalistic messages was created during the very first days of this phenomenon's existence. In fact, the press emerged as an answer to the public need of hearing new stories about themselves. At the same time, before the beginning of the 20th century, the impact of mass media was never the subject of special studies, so we can only rely on individual cases that have come to the attention of modern researchers. Meanwhile, the first studies on media impact, which began during World War I, practically postulated their unlimitedness and, accordingly, provoked a reciprocal reality -the creation of reliable protection.
It was under these conditions that the first forms of professional self-limitation and self-control emerged, later leading to the creation of professional codes of ethics both nationally and internationally. Journalistic reporting began to be presented with requirements for veracity and accuracy, reliability and objectivity, balanced points of view in reporting. This was especially true of news journalism, which selected and processed news in strict accordance with professional codes. Gradually the canons of news presentation were also established: providing fact-based, correct and complete information to the reader, answering seven questions (Who? What? When? Where? How? Why? Where?), using the principle of the "inverted pyramid" (Wolf, 2017). Journalism upholding such standards has come to be defined as having high quality, while narrative messages with an abundance of details, descriptiveness, emotional coloring have been naturally relegated to the entertainment segments of mass media, e.g. high-gloss magazines.
At the same time, in the 60s-70s, there was a new "literary turn" in journalism, which went down in history as the American "new journalism" and marked the rehabilitation of literary devices in journalistic texts. According to one of the first scholars of this phenomenon, Michael Johnson, "new journalism" can be defined as artistic, creative, literary reporting. Its characteristic features are as follows: use of fiction-writing techniques, deep study, and expression of a subjective opinion of the author (Johnson, 1971: 16). One of the founders of this journalistic trend, Tom Wolfe, points to four techniques typical of fiction writing and applied by "new journalism": storytelling built on a succession of scenes; inclusion of real-life dialogue for a more complete and accurate representation of the characters, retelling of events from the point of view of various actors; detailed description of the circumstances, habits, and quirks of the main character (New Journalism and the Anthology of New Journalism, 2008: 56-57). Thus, "new journalism" not only provided reliable information, but also influenced the reader, immersing them in events, and doing so in an entertaining way. Despite the fact that by the end of the 70s this trend began to decline, and a number of its representatives became fully-fledged writers, scholars study its development to this day, citing modern texts written at the intersection of literature and journalism as examples (Novoselova, 2017;Shutiak, 2015, Literary Journalism: A New Collection of the Best American Nonfiction, 1995). Most experts see the reasons for this literary turn in journalism in the exacerbation of America's social problems of that time: the war in Vietnam, Watergate, the arms' race. At the same time, the important point is missed that such trends affected almost all areas of humanitarian knowledge during that time, which then became the subject of study of a separate discipline -narratology. It is in the context of this discipline that the term "narrative journalism" was created and found active use from the 70s to this day (Van Krieken, 2019; Hartsock, 2007;Weber, 2016;Shim, 2014).
During a systematic search for scientific literature for the period between 1998 and 2017 the Dutch researcher Kobie van Krieken compiled 103 articles published in English language scientific journals on narrative journalism as a genre. An interesting revelation is that only ten articles were published in the period between 1998-2008, the remaining 93 -between 2009-2017. This fact led the researcher to conclude that it is a new field of study. A thorough analysis of compiled sources left Kobie van Krieken with the conclusion that despite twenty years of research experience in narrative journalism, the theoretical and empirical understanding of this phenomenon has not been sufficiently developed, many aspects have received only superficial coverage, and studies are presented as fields isolated from each other (Van Krieken, 2019).
A historical analysis has shown that in various works different terms such as "literary journalism", "long-form journalism", "literary report" are used to describe the same process (Flath, 2013). At the same time the term "narrative" can also be used in journalistic studies as a synonym to "news", or as a synonym to "metanarrative" (Flath, 2013), demanding additional attention to be paid to the content of the publication and the specific context in which the term is used.
When it comes to the term "storytelling", its first use in regards to journalistic texts can be found in the year 2000 (Ekström, 2000). In this publication, storytelling is considered as a communication tool used in the fight for attention of a potential audience in television journalism.
In this context, the function of the term "storytelling" in Ukrainian scientific discourse is of interest. Evidently, it is an Anglicism, which became part of media terminology in the post-Soviet era in the wake of active borrowing of Western cultural models, including in the field of journalism. An analysis of results for the word combination "storytelling in journalism" in the search engine Google using the Ukrainian language shows that among 105 relevant links only three scientific papers could be found, while the rest is comprised of various kinds of practical recommendations on the use of storytelling in journalism, coaching offers, courses, or information about already held courses and classes.
An analysis of search results for "storytelling" in the database of scientific publications in the Verdansky National Library of Ukraine showed that among 30 relevant publications in the period between 2009-2019 only five were related to journalism. Overall, eight Ukrainian-language scientific papers published in Ukraine and mentioning storytelling in journalism could be identified. The earliest is dated from 2016. Three of the publications are philological and deal with the question of terminology. Only two publications pay attention to the communicative characteristics of storytelling, but it is based on foreign publications, mainly Russian ones. Among references of all identified papers, there are none to Ukrainian scientific articles. No paper analyzes the real-life function of the storytelling tool in Ukrainian media. At the same time, it can be stated that the research of literary style in journalism has a fairly developed tradition in Ukraine, ranging from publications devoted to individual genres to individual fields. In regards to this, it can be further noted that in the Ukrainian media and academic circles a rather contradictory view on storytelling has developed. On the one hand, it is actively promoted in the media (there is no forum on journalism without a class on storytelling), and it is taught in various courses on journalism, yet at the same time, there is almost no conceptualization of storytelling in academic circles.
Thus it appears to be necessary to analyze not only Ukrainian, but also foreign publications in which storytelling is considered as a communication tool, to determine main markers that define communicative influence. The aforementioned study by Kobie van Krieken notes that the majority of research in the field of narrative journalism (55.3%) is devoted to style, the form of journalistic messages, that is, they answer the question by what means the communicative effect is achieved (Van Krieken, 2019). Meanwhile, only a few studies contain an experimental component related to the media impact of narrative journalism.
In a number of works, the communicative potential of storytelling is explained by the fact that the story format is one of the most common forms of communication in which an individual usually shares their personal experience. It is characterized by sequential chronology and spatio-temporal specificity. This is an everyday form of communication, which is why it is well received (Burton, 2010;Weber, 2016). In this regard, it is worth recalling the theory of symbolic convergence by Ernest Bormann. He investigated types of communication in a small group and found a relationship between the dramatic images used by group members when talking with each other, and the degree of group consciousness and solidarity. This allowed him to formulate the thesis that the exchange of group fantasies creates a symbolic convergence. What he means by fantasy is a creative and figurative interpretation of events that satisfies a psychological or rhetorical need; describes events that took place outside the group or in its past or future; and by the symbolic convergence -the linguistic process, through which group members develop a sense of community or closeness: cohesion, unity, solidarity (Griffin, 2015: 66-83). Thus, the exchange of stories brings societies together around certain topics, making it possible for journalism to fulfill one of its most important functions -the consolidation of society.
A number of researchers draw attention to the fact that any story appeals to myth, archetypes, it can always be considered as part of a certain macro narrative, and that is why it affects the deep forms of consciousness (Flath, 2013;Roeh, 1989). Moreover, the existence of a hero in a story provides the possibility to identify yourself with them (Yanenko, 2017;Van Krieken, 2018).
An important element of the communicative impact is the element of entertainment. One of the most important parts of storytelling is the presentation structure itself: the existence of a plot, scenes, dialogues, dynamic, making the consumption of a media product entertaining. Stories attract by containing intrigue, keeping us in suspense, sparking curiosity, wonder, the anticipation of an "ending", thus creating a deep connection with the reader (Weber, 2016;Chelnokova et al., 2017;Enbayeva & Topchiy, 2018).
Many scholars note that the communicative effect is enhanced by involving an emotional component in storytelling. Here it is appropriate to recall the Canadian culturologist H.M. McLuhan, who wrote that the spoken word, to which storytelling is closer, creates the effect of involvement, and the written one -that of detachment (McLuhan, 2007). It is due to the structure of a media text, creating a sense of involvement and complicity in the events, that empathy is achieved and a certain sense of identification with the hero is evoked. In addition, the use of direct and indirect quotes, the interweaving of character voices, including internal ones, provides sensory perception, immersion in the text (Van Krieken, 2018).
A number of researchers also point out the cognitive aspects of storytelling, such as the texts being understandable, accessible, easy to grasp, and memorable (Weber, 2016, Chelnokova et al. 2017Flath, 2013).
Another important aspect of communication tools that researchers point out is the fact that storytelling contains a subtle persuasion mechanism, since it appeals primarily to the emotional sphere and avoids argumentation, thereby reducing the possibility of a counterargument. A story can only be answered with another story (Flath, 2013).
The communicative benefits of the storytelling tool, which have been analyzed above, find active use in all branches of journalism (printed, audio, and audiovisual journalism) in various journalistic formats.
Most scholars connected the implementation of narrative journalism at the beginning of the new millennium with the crisis of the traditional form of presentation, especially in the printing press (Shim, 2014;Hartsock, 2007). Especially the competition between individual news platforms intensified with the advent of new media, for which news aggregation has become the norm. The spread of electronic forms of communication, which, on the one hand, contributed to the almost complete elimination of space-time barriers, on the other hand, led to shortened attention spans, superficial navigation that does not involve immersion, meaning a preference for media consumption of short messages, or even just headlines, was created. The professional discourse of that time was full of pessimistic prophecies regarding the viability of storytelling in journalism. Nevertheless, the reality has proven the contrary: storytelling has not only shown its viability in the digital age, but has demonstrated the ability to transform.
The digitalization of the field of journalism has led to the emergence of convergent publishers, equipped with additional abilities to realize storytelling. Storytelling has grown in demand as an opportunity to create unique content, and technological innovations have significantly enriched its communicative potential. Thus, with the spread of convergent journalism, one can talk about a new developmental stage of storytelling -the digital stage.
Digital storytelling in journalism exists in three types: cross-media, multimedia, transmedia. Cross-media storytelling involves the process of distributing media content in various formats through numerous media channels (Zhenchenko, 2016). American scholar Drew Davidson describes crossmedia communication as telling an interactive, integrative story involving various media, various authors, and using various styles. (Davidson et al., 2010). A typical example of its realization in journalism is the creation of websites for digital publication parallel to print editions, enabling the adaptation of stories created for the print format to a new media environment. In addition to the main communicative advantages of traditional storytelling, cross-media adds an active participation of the audience in story creation, a segmented approach to it. In the digital environment, such stories become multimedia, that is, involving the use of many communication channels in one product.
Experts consider The New York Times project "Snow Fall", which tells of the fate of skiers and snowboarders caught in a snow avalanche, as the beginning of multimedia storytelling. This project was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2013 and became a sensation in journalistic circles. Many experts consider it a turning point in online journalism. This experience began to be actively used by other publishers, primarily as a signifier of publisher status. Given the fact that such projects require time, staff, and material costs, they are perceived primarily as an element of branding by the editors. Based on this, special attention was paid to the communicative potential of multimedia storytelling.
The communicative features of multimedia storytelling consist of the simultaneous use of different types of content (text, graphics, animation, video, audio) to influence the audience, working to achieve one goal, logically complementing and serving as a continuation of each other in a single media message. Multimedia storytelling involves the principle of interactivity (Kiria, 2010).
Multimedia storytelling has all of the aforementioned communication capabilities that are characteristic of traditional storytelling. At the same time, it also carries additional features related to the environment in which it functions, both at the stage of creation of a media message as well as at the stage of perception. These features need to be discussed in detail.
An important issue is the choice of topics for multimedia storytelling. Given that such projects are, on the one hand, costly, as already mentioned above, and on the other hand, image-building, the editors are especially careful in choosing topics. Ideally, it combines public interest with a commercial one.
According to some scholars, a multimedia message has additional communicative potential due to the fact that multimedia in itself is organic to people, which means that such a message is perceived naturally. Through seamless integration in a single technological environment of various formats, the creation of a rich and layered story is achieved. At the same time, the story is still of primary importance, while multimedia is only an ideal form of its realization. Thus, multimedia elements should be an integral part of the narrative. With a successful combination of various types of information supply, the message becomes unified and multifaceted at the same time, achieving a polyphonic sound (Simakova & Enbayeva, 2019;Anyukhina, 2017).
When considering multimedia storytelling as a communication tool, perception becomes the most important issue. To facilitate perception, the media text is divided into semantic blocks, thus saving the text from monotony. For example, "Snow Fall" consists of six parts. A study by Kobie van Krieken shows how typical scene-building techniques (scene reconstructions, event structure, viewpoint techniques) are implemented using multimedia. The analysis allowed her to conclude that a multimedia combination enhances the feeling of immersion in the events. Detailed visual reconstructions of a scene, for example, enhance the imagination of the audience, making it possible to mentally create the world in which the event takes place. The story unfolds in two chronotopes: in present (color image) and past (black and white image). Although the story begins in mass media and includes several memories, the plot of the main story is narrated in chronological order, thereby increasing the feeling of suspense (Van Krieken, 2018). Representation of events from the characters' point of view is expressed in text, video, and audio. This way, the audience can find out what the characters felt, watched, thought, and said.
Researchers prove that the use of multimedia helps to retain attention, facilitates perception, provides better grasp, understanding, increases engagement, creates the effect of immersion, enhances creativity.
Thus, the listed communicative characteristics of multimedia storytelling create conditions for effective communicative impact.
Another type of digital storytelling is transmedia storytelling, used mainly in the entertainment sector, but, according to some experts, with prospects of application in journalism. The essence of this phenomenon is that for one story, several thematically related media products are used and then distributed on interconnected media platforms (Zhenchenko, 2016). Their communicative advantages are an increase in the degree of interactivity, a personal approach to the consumer of a media product, involvement, and an increase in audience creativity. The use of transmedia storytelling is usually part of a marketing strategy for promoting a media product, as it opens up new opportunities for expanding the audience, strengthening brands and monetizing unique content. (Ryan, 2013;Milovidov, 2014). it has been perceived as a tool and actively used in mass communications. The first documented use of it as a communication tool in journalism in scientific discourse dates back to 2000. In the Ukrainian scientific discourse, this phenomenon has not been studied enough, as evidenced by the few scientific articles in the Ukrainian language (8 identified), the earliest of which is dated 2016. At the same time, an analysis of Google search results revealed that storytelling is being actively promoted in the Ukrainian professional sphere as a new promising trend.
The modern discourse on storytelling in journalism is marked by inconsistency, primarily due to terminological inconsistency. Researchers call it either a genre, or a style of writing, or a format, or an instrument, or a technique, or a communication tool, or a method. In various research traditions, "narrative journalism", "literary journalism", and "artistic reporting" are used synonymously to storytelling.
In the framework of this study, storytelling was considered as a communication tool that uses an informational message in form of a story, and is utilized by a communicant to increase perception efficiency and influence the communicator.
An analysis of scientific publications, in which storytelling was considered as a communication tool, revealed the main markers that increase the chance of a communicative influence. These include the very form of story building, being, on the one hand, mundane, on the other, appealing to myth, archetypes; presentation structure and style (plot, scenes, dialogue, dynamic, intrigue, anticipation of an "ending"); focus on the emotional sphere (involvement in the event, complicity, empathy, immersion); cognitive component (comprehensibility, accessibility, easy digestibility, memorability); the use of subtle persuasion techniques.
A study of the developmental history of storytelling as a communication tool in journalism led to the conclusion that it can be divided into two main stages. The first is associated with the development of traditional storytelling in print media, radio, and television. The second is the development of digital storytelling. Narration has been a feature of journalistic development since the 18th and 19th centuries. In the 20th century, during the movement for objective journalism, it was pushed out into the entertainment segment such as the yellow press and high-gloss magazines. Narrative in journalism began to be implemented again in the 60s-70s of the 20th century ("New journalism"). At the same time, a full awareness of storytelling as a communication tool in journalism occurred only at the end of the 20th century. This was due to the crisis of traditional media under the influence of rapidly developing new information and communication technologies, which forced publishers to look for new ways to attract an audience. It was during this period that digital storytelling was born.
Digital storytelling in journalism uses the full communicative potential of traditional storytelling, adding multimedia and interactivity to it, thereby increasing the chances to create an impact. Digital storytelling in journalism is implemented in forms such as cross-media, multimedia, transmedia. Technological innovations such as Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, and Virtual Reality can also enhance the communicative impact of storytelling. The latter implements the principle of involvement and dialogism to the greatest extent.
The principles of storytelling development in journalism are its recognition as a communication tool that can achieve both commercial and social goals, the increase and complication of means to influence the audience with new information technologies, and a paradigm shift from broadcasting to involving. Further studies can be conducted through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of research on storytelling in post-Soviet spaces.