Constructing Authenticity as an Alternative to Objectivity: A Study of Non-Fiction Journalism in Chinese Media

Abstract

In recent years, non-fiction journalism, regarded as a subset of literary and narrative journalism, has garnered significant attention in Chinese media. This trend underscores a notable departure from traditional journalistic norms of objectivity toward an emphasis on authenticity. Drawing upon a comprehensive analysis of 348 articles sourced from Southern People Weekly, a prominent media outlet for non-fiction journalism in China, this study examines the construction of authenticity along two distinct dimensions: voice and visibility. The voice dimension encompasses the utilization of first-person narratives by sources, the expression of authorial voice, and the orchestration of polyphony between journalists and their sources. The visibility dimension pertains to the portrayal of sources through visual imagery, the strategic presentation of journalists, and the scenic depiction of context and environment. Based on these findings, this study discusses the challenges posed by this narrative paradigm to the traditional notion of objectivity and its implications for the rising ideal of subjective journalism.

1. Introduction

Although it lacks an accepted universal definition, non-fiction journalism has been frequently practiced and discussed in China in the most recent decade (Chang & Wang, 2023; Yin, 2022). Many programs have emerged, encouraging both professional journalists and amateurs to record authentic details about ordinary people in the context of social changes. With slogans such as “telling your true stories”1, non-fiction strays from the traditional objectivity principle, privileging authenticity at the forefront of journalism.

The prevalence of non-fiction journalism in China dates back to 2010 when the official magazine, People’s Literature (renmin wenxue), debuted a non-fiction column and invited contributions centered around the theme of “people’s authentic lives”. Since then, the allure of non-fiction has captivated the media industry. In 2015, eight media outlets, including Tencent Guyu, Dandu, and Southern People Weekly, established a “Chinese non-fiction alliance” to promote the genre. Within years, several outstanding examples of non-fiction journalism emerged in the market, and full-length books and films adapted from non-fiction journalism became popular, pushing “non-fiction” to become a buzzword in the media and public discourse (Yin, 2022).

As a branch of literary journalism and narrative journalism, non-fiction journalism aims to “render reality” through accurate and aesthetic storytelling (Boynton, 2005). It emphasizes journalists’ storytelling skills rather than their ability to obtain and present factual information with immediacy and efficiency. By allowing space for immersive and engaging expressions (Soffer, 2009), it challenges the dominant norm of journalistic objectivity, which stresses professional distance and detachment. It highlights the value of subjectivity by acknowledging the importance of the “journalistic I” (Steensen, 2017) and the presentation of the individual experiences of both the journalists and their sources (Markham, 2012). Based on the case study of Southern People Weekly, a flagship non-fiction journalism platform in China, this study examines how authenticity is performed by journalists and the implications it has for the ongoing debates concerning objectivity versus subjectivity as journalistic norms.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Objectivity and Subjectivity

Objectivity is often regarded as a self-evident norm of journalism. For journalistic professionals, it signifies “a faith in facts”, a distrust of values, and “a commitment to their segregation” (Schudson, 1978, p. 6). In news production, the “strategic ritual” of objectivity requires journalists to quote sources, avoid personal opinions, and maintain professional distance (Tuchman, 1972). The journalists are expected to write from an “outsider, unbiased position”, repressing the expression of intense and engaged voices (Soffer, 2009, p. 474). “Balance”, “fairness”, and “impartiality” are operationalized as ethical guidelines (Deuze, 2005, p. 448).

However, this position of journalistic objectivity has been constantly challenged. Critics have voiced doubts that the “gold standard” of objectivity can be underpinned by what they see as unattainable “scientific standards” (Post, 2014, p. 1). It is rooted in “the mistaken positivism premises” (Muñoz-Torres, 2012, p. 568) that an “independent reality” can “be accessed through scientific enquiry” outside of subjective experiences (Raeijmaekers & Maeseele, 2017, p. 650). Moreover, journalism’s confidence in “the accomplishment of impartial, balanced prose” and the “belief in productive civic engagement” has been threatened by contemporary uncertainties (Zelizer, 2015, p. 892), given the prevalence of “post-truth” and “alternative facts” (Waisbord, 2018).

Scholars have, in recent decades, taken a keen interest in (re-)discovering the value of subjectivity alongside objectivity. Subjectivity has always been a feature of journalism, as seen in the case of “story journalism” in American history (Schudson, 1978) and the tradition of opinion and the literary press in Europe (Donsbach & Klett, 1993). The relationship between subjectivity and objectivity should not be taken as oppositional, but complementary, as subjectivity is “an integral and necessary part” of the performance of journalists that is just as important as objectivity to the making of “good journalism” (Van Zoonen, 1998, p. 139). Today, in the context of negotiating norms within a complex hybrid media environment, scholars have examined evolving genres such as narrative journalism, participatory journalism, activist journalism, and constructive journalism (Mast et al., 2017, 2019). A range of alternative principles, including “diversity” (Borger et al., 2019), “reader’s involvement” (Van Krieken & Sanders, 2017, 2021), “mediating subjectivity” (Harbers & Broersma, 2014), “authenticity” (Feng, 2016), and so on, have been found to operate in parallel with, or overtake, objectivity. This has increasingly led scholars to recognize and appreciate the value of subjectivity as a journalistic norm. As Steensen (2017) argues, all cognitions are necessarily subjective, and “it is impossible to say something true about the world if subjectivity is ignored” (p. 44).

2.2. Authenticity in Journalism

As “an eminently modern value” (Cohen, 1988, p. 373), authenticity has drawn wide attention across different fields in contemporary society. As in other fields, such as tourism, culture, business and politics (Enli, 2015), the popularity of the notion of authenticity has also been on the rise in media and journalism over the past two decades (Deuze, 2007; Enli, 2015; Holt, 2012; Markham, 2012).

The concept of authenticity has been varyingly defined, but in the context of journalism, two aspects are especially important. One is its emphasis on what is real, genuine, and trustworthy, as opposed to what is unreal, fake, false, and untrustworthy (Enli, 2015). This distinction between the real and the unreal is central to journalism’s premise of claiming to provide a valid and true description of reality. The other aspect of authenticity is the emphasis on the self, or the congruence of the self “between avowal and actual feeling and behavior” (Trilling, 1972, p. 2), as opposed to society, in forming identity and performing roles, as well as experiencing and recognizing reality. In other words, whether in life or in work, being authentic means “being true to one’s inner self” rather than conforming to social structures and norms (Syvertsen & Enli, 2020, p. 1272). This proposition resonates with the ideal of journalistic subjectivity in terms of valuing personal involvement and individual experiences in humanized storytelling. In this sense, authenticity bridges the gap between objectivity and subjectivity in journalism.

The emphasis on authenticity in journalism is underpinned by an epistemological transformation toward “I-pistemology”. As Van Zoonen (2012) notes, with the rise of critical theory that identifies knowledge as an instrument of power, along with popular culture that emphasizes personalities, people in contemporary societies have come to suspect institutional expertise and prefer to trust the “truth” derived from their own individual experiences rather than from external sources. The employment of authenticity in the practice of journalism is often interpreted as creativity. Deuze (2007) regards it as helpful to bring out “an individual’s creative voice”, representing journalists’ ability to “resolve problems in unique and distinctive ways” (p. 162). Holt (2012) views it as a resistance to orthodox objectivity and a commitment to “accentuating one’s uniqueness as trademark” (p. 4), and Markham (2012) sees it as a way to reconcile different forms of journalism, reflecting the “contingent notions of agency, freedom, and democratization” in “cultural and professional authorization” (p. 189). However, few have examined how exactly journalists go about constructing authenticity and what mechanisms they employ.

In the realm of non-fiction journalism, two strategies can be said to be important to the construction of authenticity. One is voice. Markham (2012) argues that achieving authenticity requires a cultural shift “from professional expertise to personal expression” (p. 187). Greenberg (2012) shows how the “unedited voice of a single person”, in contrast to detached professional writing, is “a guarantee of authenticity”, and Głaz and Trofymczuk (2020) demonstrate the power of voice in enhancing journalistic narratives, distinguishing between single and multiple voices. The other salient aspect in authenticity construction is visibility. Based on the content analysis of first-person narrative journalistic works, Malone (2014) suggests that the reporter’s visibility and self-presentation in the narrative are direct ways to demonstrate authenticity in journalism. Miller and Lewis (2022) demonstrate that in the digital era, journalists tend to blur “the visibility of their personal and professional lives” (p. 1886) and engage in “visibility work”, akin to social media influencers (Abidin, 2016), to connect with the audience.

2.3. Non-Fiction Journalism and the Chinese Practice

The rise of non-fiction writing is connected to the “interpretive turn” in journalism during the 1960s (Pauly, 2014; Schudson, 1978). The accompanying “new journalism movement” reinvigorated reporting as a form of narrative and storytelling (Eason, 1984) and championed “reportorially based, narrative-driven long-form nonfiction” (Wolfe, 1973, p. 12) as a genre that achieves a depiction of reality that is both precise and aesthetically pleasing (Boynton, 2005).

Due to its emphasis on storytelling and narrative, non-fiction journalism is frequently discussed in conjunction with narrative journalism and literary journalism. Regarding news as narratives or literary forms means that “news is not reality as it happened, but an observed documentation and representation of that reality” (Buozis & Creech, 2018, p. 1431). The journalists organize and represent social reality “through the filters of personal experience and moral judgment” (Harbers & Broersma, 2014, p. 643), and they “tell news naturally” instead of from a detached position (Hartsock, 2016). Their practices are situated within the continuum of “ethnographic realism and cultural phenomenology” or between “objective and subjective journalism” (Roberts & Giles, 2014, p. 101). They believe that by engaging with subjectivities and eliciting empathic responses, journalism better fulfills its role of serving the public (Hartsock, 1999; Martinez, 2017).

Non-fiction journalism has gained widespread popularity across diverse national contexts, including Australia (Joseph, 2018), the US (Alexander, 2009), and Brazil (Martinez, 2020), among others. Research has underscored its significance and broad appeal within various journalistic traditions. For example, in Australia, non-fiction journalism has been noted for its emphasis on source relationships within an expanded narrative structure, contributing to a more nuanced and impactful representation of Indigenous Australians in mainstream news media (Little, 2010). In the US, this form of journalism is often categorized as literary journalism, encompassing genres such as memoirs, personal essays, profiles, and even travel writing, all characterized by artful styles and innovative narrative techniques (Sims & Kramer, 1995).

In China, the rise of non-fiction journalism is not only influenced by the Western “new journalism movement” but also rooted in the rich storytelling traditions of Chinese journalists and writers (Wang, 2023). The storytelling tradition in China has been evident in various forms throughout history. A distinctive form is baogao wenxue (reportage literature), a hybrid of literature and journalism that has been a “continuous strand of China’s leftist cultural legacy” since the early 1930s (Laughlin, 2002, p. 16). Providing a firsthand account of Chinese society, this reportage served as “moral and spiritual stimuli” for the Communist revolutionaries and their followers at the time (Chou, 1985). In the 1980s, with the “reform and opening up” of society, liberal-minded journalists and writers used baogao wenxue to challenge the official line and analyze social problems (Guo & Lu, 2008; Laughlin, 2002). In the 1990s, with the growing commercialization of media and professionalization of journalism, “features” (tegao), a renewed term for baogao wenxue, became the dominant form of storytelling journalism in China. Focusing on the stories of ordinary people that had previously been overlooked, portraying people and their surroundings in a personal and emotionally charged manner, and appealing to audiences with their humanitarian charm, feature journalism, sometimes also called in-depth reporting, was one of the forces behind the emergence of a progressively “golden age” of Chinese journalism (Wang, 2021; Wang & Sparks, 2019).

Since 2015, the term “non-fiction” has garnered significant attention in China. With the establishment of the “non-fiction alliance” and the debut of a series of non-fiction publications and works, the concept has been popularized in Chinese media discourse. Consequently, numerous programs have emerged, and journalists have raced to produce non-fiction works that capture the authentic and poignant details of contemporary China. It is noteworthy that journalists often use the two terms interchangeably in their practices due to the significant overlap between non-fiction and feature journalism (Lu, 2018), as both center around human interest and personal experiences, provide detailed and lengthy accounts, and emphasize polished language.

3. Research Questions

Based on the background provided, this study uses a two-dimensional framework, voice and visibility, to analyze the construction of authenticity in Chinese non-fiction journalism. Voice is understood as the “who” in the act of speaking (Głaz & Trofymczuk, 2020), and visibility refers to “a public and accessible view” of the actors and the environments associated with them (Miller & Lewis, 2022). We ask the following research questions:

• RQ1: How is voice presented in Chinese non-fiction journalism?
• RQ2: How is visibility presented in Chinese non-fiction journalism?
• RQ3: How does the presentation of voice and visibility contribute to the construction of authenticity as an alternative journalistic norm?

4. Research Methods

We have mainly used the case study method in this research. The case chosen is a leading and active Chinese non-fiction writing platform, Southern People Weekly (SPW hereafter). Founded in 2004 by the Canton-based South Media Group which also produces a series of other well-known publications, including Southern Metropolitan Daily and Southern Weekend, SPW is a feature publication specializing in human-interest and people-centered stories. In its peak year in 2010s its circulation rate reached over 1 million copies and currently it sells 760,000 copies per issue across nearly 50 cities, which is higher than most of the feature magazines in China.2 In 2015, SPW initiated the establishment of the “Chinese non-fiction creation alliance” together with s other media outlets with similar interests, solidifying its status as a pioneer in Chinese non-fiction journalism.

The case study is based on an analysis of the contents of SPW’s non-fiction articles and the metajournalistic discourse (Carlson, 2015) articulated by its practitioners. The contents focus on the cover stories published in SPW over an eight-year period, from 2015, when non-fiction became popular, to 2023, when this study was conducted. During this period, SPW published a total of 360 issues, averaging approximately 45 issues per year. We accessed all issues through SPW’s proprietary digital archive and extracted the cover stories from each issue for further examination. Following a manual review of all covers, we excluded stories labeled as “corporate sponsored”, “enterprise commercial”, or “special review”, as identified through the headings or subheadings displayed on the cover page, and included all others. Ultimately, a total of 348 cover stories were selected for in-depth analysis.

Based on these stories, both quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed. In the quantitative part, we coded the basic information about the stories, including the time of publication, length, topic, and author, as well as textual features such as timeliness, sourcing, and the usage of first-person perspectives, direct quotations, and dialogues. Before the formal coding, the two authors of this study independently coded approximately 20% (n = 70) of the sampled articles to evaluate inter-coder reliability. The process began with an initial round of coding, after which we reviewed and discussed discrepancies or ambiguities between the coders. To enhance clarity, we refined the coding instructions and adjusted the coding sheet to better define the categories that had caused inconsistencies. A second round of coding was then carried out, followed by a final assessment of inter-coder reliability. Krippendorff’s alpha (α) values were calculated, ranging from 0.83 to 0.92 across all variables, indicating high or satisfactory levels of reliability.

In the qualitative part, following Wahl-Jorgensen (2013), we adopted the appraisal approach to evaluate the expressions embedded in the micro-level texts of SPW’s non-fiction works. For the purpose of this study, our focus is on how voice and visibility are expressed to construct authenticity, based on immersive readings of typical stories.

Complementing the analysis of non-fiction work, we also collected and analyzed the journalists’ reflections on their practices. Our search was based on SPW’s mobile application, which includes a regular journalists’ notes section. A total of 21 notes published between 2015 and 2023 were collected. In addition, two books featuring nine SPW journalists’ experiences in non-fiction writing were also included. We analyzed these materials in order to understand the thinking behind SPW journalists’ practices and to triangulate with the content data, thereby deepening our understanding.

5. Research Findings

5.1. General Characteristics of SPW’s Non-Fiction

Non-fiction stories in SPW cover a wide range of topics, including both hard and soft news topics. However, soft topics are predominantly emphasized, making up 69.83% (n = 243) of the sample, while hard news accounts for only 28.16% (n = 98). In particular, culture garners the most attention (31.03%, n = 108), with renowned artists, writers, and intellectuals being frequent subjects of reporting. Entertainment is also emphasized, accounting for 17.24% (n = 60), followed by health and education (9.77%, n = 34), sports (6.03%, n = 21), and human interest (5.75%, n = 20). By contrast, few stories addressed the topics of law and order (2.01%, n = 7) and the military (1.15%, n = 4). Marginal attention is paid to technology (4.89%, n = 17) and disasters and similar incidents (3.74%, n = 13). Politics and the economy, which are classic topics for quality media in China, were given a certain degree of attention. The former accounts for 6.61% (n = 23) of the sample, while the latter accounts for 9.77% (n = 34).

SPW has displayed a strong depoliticization trend over the years. Analyzing this topic in relation to the year of publication, we found that the more recent the time, the less likely political reporting is to appear. In 2015, SPW published 11 political stories, covering topics such as official corruption, the one-child policy, and civil servants in small towns. The years 2016 and 2017 recorded six and three political stories, respectively, focusing on topics such as the relocation of national capital city functions to Xiong’an, pensioners’ welfare reform, etc. From 2018 to 2023, the most recent five years, there have been only three cover stories on political topics, focusing on policies related to graduates’ employment, left-behind children, and urban village renovation. This trend coincides with the tightened political censorship of Chinese journalism in the recent decade, which has forced many media outlets to abandon political reporting to seek refuge (Wang & Yin, 2024). However, it is also related to SPW’s non-fiction preferences, which tend to deliberately focus away from hard topics and toward human stories (JN01).3

Unlike regular news, which emphasizes timely reporting, SPW’s non-fiction journalism takes the “slow journalism” approach (Le Masurier, 2015) and typically downplays the immediacy or timeliness rule in journalism. Among the sampled stories, only two (0.57%) are about events that occurred within a week, resonating with the rhythm of weekly publication of the magazine. In contrast, 261 (75.00%) focus on events that happened more than a year ago, 12 (3.45%) are from within a year, and an additional 34 (9.77%) are about obscure “past” events without a definite time reference.

Meanwhile, SPW’s cover stories are generally lengthy accounts of people-centered events. The average length of the sampled articles is 10,533 Chinese characters.4 The shortest is 1700 characters, and the longest amounts to 24,519 characters. The number of paragraphs ranges from 18 to 483, averaging 115 (

Table 1. Characteristics of SPW’s non-fiction journalism (N = 348).

Variable	Average	Max	Min
No. of words (Chinese characters)	10,533	24,519	1700
No. of paragraphs	115	483	18
No. of sources	13	53	1
No. of first-person usage	62	305	3
No. of paragraphs containing source’s direct citations	50	148	7
No. of paragraphs containing author’s voice	19	89	0
No of paragraphs containing environment sketch	5	31	0
No. of paragraphs containing figure sketch	17	58	0

). Correspondingly, these non-fiction articles, distinguished by their long-form narratives, typically use a large number of sources. The average number of sources across all samples is 13, and the median is 11. The general pattern indicates that the longer the story, the more sources are likely to be used. The largest number of sources is 53, appearing in an article exceeding 15,000 characters in length. Eight shorter stories featuring portraits of news actors are only based on one source. This contrasts with a recent study on regular news in Chinese newspapers from 2018, which shows that the average number of sources is a mere 2.26 (Wang & Meng, 2023).

Moreover, SPW’s non-fiction stories have a penchant for quoting sources directly and using first-person narratives extensively (Table 1). In one extreme case, a story featuring the autobiographical account of an environmental activist in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster used a total of 106 first-person pronouns in a single article. Presenting the author’s voice and sketching the image of the figures and environment are also common practices (Table 1). As we will analyze later, these characteristics, together with how the sources are presented and quoted, have significant implications for the construction of authenticity in SPW’s non-fiction journalism.

5.2. Presentation of Voice

Unlike objective journalism, which requires “a distanced and monologic voice” in the texts (Soffer, 2009, p. 474), SPW journalists have a strong preference for presenting the authentic voices of sources and authors in engaging ways. Three voice strategies are found to be central to SPW’s non-fiction journalism: the first-person narratives of sources, the authorial voices of journalists, and the polyphony between journalists and sources.

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Sources’ voice

To make a person heard, a direct quote is always more effective than a paraphrase (Harry, 2014). In contrast to objective journalism, which typically summarizes and abstracts sources’ words, SPW journalists tend to present the sources’ words directly in their own original voices.

Sources’ voices can be categorized into two distinct types: witness voice, which describes events from a spectator’s position, and character voice, which recounts events from the viewpoint of those directly involved in the events. Journalists often use these two types of voices interchangeably, allowing one to complement and support the other. In a story about the families who experienced profound loss in a case involving a serial killer who targeted women over 28 years in a remote countryside area of China’s northwestern Gansu Province, the journalist began the article by portraying the scene and introducing the victims and their families. A whole paragraph was used to quote a senior police officer who was in charge of the investigation and who, looking back, felt deeply regretful for what had happened to one of the young women victims, which is presented as follows:

“There are things I cannot figure out even today.” Niu Su (the police officer) recalled the past. “I went to the scene of the case in 1994. When she was killed, there were four people playing mahjong on the second floor, but they did not notice anything special. It is a cruel murder. To be honest, I never thought it was done by a countryman. At that time, the city was chaotic, but the countryside was peaceful”.

(No. 84)5

From a spectator’s position, the police officer’s words served as an eyewitness account testifying to the cruelty of the murder, paving the way for the narration of the suffering of the victim’s family. After a few paragraphs’ narration on the investigation of the case, the journalist shifts to the brother of the victim. Again, a whole paragraph of direct quotation was used, as follows:

“We were completely broken down when it happened. My entire family cried, for a whole day, so did I. My mom choked whenever she talked to people, she cried and talked. Less than four years after my sister was killed, my father died. He was only 51. He got liver cirrhosis, ‘liver qi’ stagnation caused liver ascites. His hair turned white overnight. A man in his 50s looked as old as one in his 70s or 80s. He was treated for a year after getting the liver cirrhosis, and then he was gone. My mother did not work, and I was just entering college, a freshman. You tell me, how did I continue my college in such a situation. I do not want to recall these things. For so many years, our family didn’t even have anyone to hate. At that time, I didn’t even know who to hate. We had nowhere to vent”.

(No. 84)

Direct quotations like these are used throughout the article. The journalist tries to show different aspects of the impact of the murder through various first-person narratives, which range from those whose lives were totally changed to those who met the killer only once. Different sources tell the story of the murder from their perspectives, and the journalist pulls the pieces together to form an overall picture that may not be complete but is (or seems) authentic. The sources’ voices are presented in their original and uninterrupted form and even without editing the word order. In doing so, the journalist invites readers to feel what the victim’s family felt, to sympathize with their struggles, and to experience an authentic story of living and suffering.

This is a recurring pattern throughout the sampled stories, in which we found that the average number of paragraphs containing direct quotations from sources is 50 per article. Given that the total number of paragraphs in the sample averages 115, this means that approximately 1 out of every 2.3 paragraphs of SPW’s non-fiction stories contains direct quotations from sources. Such intensity of direct quotations is a deliberate choice by the journalists. As one journalist wrote, the use of direct quotations from various interviewees is a strategy for encouraging readers to “form their feelings and judgments about various people involved in the event” (JN08).

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Authors’ voice

Contrary to the notion that journalists should depersonalize their practices to achieve value-free truthfulness (Raeijmaekers & Maeseele, 2017), the subjective voices of the authors, expressing their feelings, opinions, judgments, and interpretations, frequently appear in SPW’s non-fiction work. The journalists habitually step outside the confines of conventional professionalism and assume a personalized position to make their views on the people and occurrences on which they are reporting transparent.

Take the example of SPW’s 2015 cover story on Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien, who had just released a new film. Instead of keeping a detached observer’s stance, the journalist uses a first-person perspective to directly engage with the inner world of the director, as follows:

Throughout his career, Hou Hsiao-hsien probably didn’t speak as much as he has recently. From the moment we met in Hangzhou, he officially entered the pre-release publicity season. He traveled to major cities to attend meetings one after another. A person who seems to be so restrained in his cinematic expression must, like other celebrities during the publicity period, pick up a workload that may be even greater than making the movie and say the same words repeatedly to groups after groups of people.

(No. 30)

Through the use of conditional terms such as “probably”, “may be”, and “seem to”, the article depicts the director by inferring and imagining his situation. These descriptions may not withstand the scrutiny of facts, as the information provided is non-verifiable. However, by portraying a person with celebrity status as someone who is experiencing inner struggles and contradictions like ordinary people, it strikes a chord of authenticity among readers.

To aid the expression of authenticity and subjectivity, first-person pronouns, such as “I” and “we”, and their variations are heavily used in the reporting. Two scenarios arise in their use: when used within quotations, they are those of the sources, but when they are used outside quotations, they refer to the journalists, as in the example above. Our quantitative analysis shows that on average, each article used 62 first-person pronouns in the sampled stories, with a median of 51, a maximum of 305, and a minimum of 0. Among all usages, about 11.29% occur outside of the quotations, referring to the journalists themselves. This is starkly different from conventional journalism, which stresses a third-person position on the part of the journalists. Journalists are no longer obscured by institutions; rather, they forthrightly express their personal voices with a value orientation, establishing their presence in the story as witnesses, warranting the credibility of the reporting, and showcasing their power of being in control of the story, thereby enhancing the authority of the reporting.

The utilization of the author’s voice is reflected not only in the first-person expressions but also in journalists’ direct comments about the events and people in their coverage. For example, SPW’s 2018 cover story on the 110th anniversary of the death of Guangxu, the penultimate emperor of the Qing Dynasty, discusses Guangxu’s demise at the age of 38, which was believed to be the responsibility of his aunt, Empress Dowager Yehenara. Instead of keeping personal viewpoints hidden, the journalist directly comments, as follows:

As a politician, Yehenara has received countless praise and criticism. However, no one can deny that she is a skilled and cunning power player. This is a tenacious woman who survived various internal and external threats as well as brutal palace politics throughout her life. She was born into a humble background, lost her husband in her youth, and her son in middle age. She experienced two escapes, successfully staged three palace coups, and was the actual supreme ruler of the Qing Empire for 48 years.

(No. 178)

Describing Yehenara as “a skilled and cunning power player” and “the actual supreme ruler”, the journalist is explicit about her attitude and strong in her opinions. In contrast with objective journalism, which prioritizes facts, non-fiction journalists give more weight to personal interpretations and judgments.

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Polyphony between journalists and sources

Journalists’ voices are often interwoven with the sources’ voices. The two intersect to form a polyphony of voices. The result is a conversational dynamic within the text that prompts the reader to imagine themselves as part of the story and participating in the conversation as they read.

The key tactic to establish polyphony is the utilization of dialogues in the reporting. Instead of the monologic style of narration, SPW’s non-fiction journalism encourages what Soffer (2009) called a “subjective dialogical site” to be established between journalists and sources. By describing the details of the conversation and its surrounding atmosphere, the journalists demonstrate the dynamics of interactions with sources while positioning themselves as active first persons. In a story about the documentary filmmaker Chen Weijun, who bade farewell to his audience after being diagnosed with advanced cancer, the journalist attempts to show the humanistic side and vulnerability of the filmmaker. However, instead of directly narrating Chen’s fears about death, the journalist presents a conversation between himself and Chen about this, as follows:

Probably because of the atmosphere at night, it felt cold. I remembered the shots he had taken before, which showed the fearful expressions of people facing difficulties. Relating to the seriousness of his illness, I asked: “Do you feel scared?” Chen slowly said, “Of course”, and then asked back: “When you are scared, don’t you think this is also a way out?”.

(No. 250)

The journalist does not report from a distance but becomes immersed in the story to initiate a conversation with the source. Through the presentation of interlocutions, the journalist presents an intimately close relationship with the source, leaving readers with the impression that they could possibly be part of the emotional community and included in the intimacy. The conversational tendencies in non-fiction journalism indicate a changing positioning of journalists in relation to their sources, where attachment, instead of detachment, is emphasized. Although journalists still hold the power to decide “what information becomes public and what remains unsaid” (Broersma et al., 2013, p. 390), they do so subtly and unnoticeably, making readers feel that everything is transparent and nothing is withheld from their notice.

5.3. Presentation of Visibility

Apart from including various voices in their writing, non-fiction journalists also construct authenticity through the presentation of visibility. This includes the visualization of sources’ images, journalists’ self-presentation, and scene descriptions.

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Sources’ images

In contrast to traditional news reports, which tend to aim for precision in reporting, non-fiction journalists pay more attention to detailed descriptions of characters in their writing. Just as they make the sources heard through the presentation of their voices, the journalists depict the details of the images of the sources in order to make them visible, thus enhancing the experience of authenticity for the readers. A common strategy for SPW journalists to visualize the images of the sources is to sketch portraits of them through the manipulation of words and texts. For example, in a cover story about rock singer Zhang Chu, who was active in the 1990s but has become less popular in recent years, the journalist writes the following:

Zhang Chu was sitting on the sofa wearing a gray and black flying hat. In mid-December, he came to attend a friend’s new book launch. As evening approached, the number of people gradually increased, and the noisy environment made his sensitivity obvious. The photographer was also sensitive and complained that Zhang Chu’s eyes were always wide open, blinking constantly, and not looking at the camera’s direction.

(No. 217)

By describing the singer’s appearance in the salon, detailing his clothing and demeanor, especially his hat and eyes, and outlining the sofa he sat on, along with the people and environment around him, the journalist achieves the effect of painting a portrait of the singer. The distinctively sensitive character of the singer comes to life on the page, blending an air of awkwardness with out-of-tune charisma.

Likewise, in another cover story about the “shamate”6 subculture and its initiators, social media influencer Luo Fuxing and documentary filmmaker Li Yifan, the journalist advances the article by alternating portraits of the two men as follows:

Luo Fuxing had already cut off his exaggeratedly long “shamate” hair. He only used hairspray to give his hair a distinguishable high pompadour. He did not dye his hair any strange colors but had kept it in regular black. He was not tall. Apart from the tattoos exposed on his arms and hands, outside he looks like just an ordinary and thin young man.

…

What does this middle-aged man in front of him want to do? Luo Fuxing crossed his arms and looked at Li Yifan across from him. The man claimed to be from Chongqing and wanted to make a film for him. His short hair was half gray, and his face and body were a bit round. He seemed kind and casual, even proposed to buy him lunch in the nearby McDonald’s.

(No. 251)

By setting the two on the occasion of their first meeting, the journalist provides detailed descriptions of their appearances in turn. Paying particular attention to their hair styles and bodies, the journalist portrays their vividly authentic images and highlights their distinctiveness, rendering them visible to the readers and leaving them imprinted in the readers’ minds.

This preference is also manifested in our quantitative analysis, which shows the prevalence of the profile sketching of characters in SPW’s non-fiction. Among the overall sample, we found that the average number of paragraphs that include such sketches is 17, with 15 as the median and 58 as the maximum. One hundred seventeen articles, accounting for almost 34% of the sample, include more than 20 paragraphs featuring profile sketches.

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Journalists’ self-presentation

Another significant approach is journalists’ frequent self-presentation. In contrast to conventional news journalists, who tend to remain invisible, non-fiction journalists do not shy away from presenting themselves to the readers. For instance, in a 2015 cover story about assisted reproductive technology (ART), the journalist directly states that she achieved her pregnancy through ART and compares her personal experience with that of the interviewees.

For a full two years, I had to carefully avoid any urgent or important work because the treatment for infertility requires scheduling medical appointments based on biological timing, and you never know when you might need to go to the hospital. In the hospital corridor, I once saw several women discussing in a lively manner how to balance work and medical visits. The discussion turned into a venting session, and apart from resigning, there seemed to be almost no good solutions. In subsequent interviews, I learned that many women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments have had the experience of quitting their jobs to focus solely on getting pregnant.

(No. 32)

As journalists have realized, conventional objectivity remains a strong ideology, not only within the community of practice among journalists but also in the interpretive community among readers. In practicing non-fiction, journalists are inevitably confronted with questions regarding the contradiction between the conventional commitment of journalism to objectivity and non-fiction’s construction of authenticity. In this context, SPW journalists used their self-presentation and the transparent display of their images and experiences in the story as a means of defense. One journalist reflects as follows:

The readers would often ask, where did you get those vivid stories? why should I believe you? Doubts like these can be harmful to our journalism. You should give evidence and show the readers where your position is in the story directly. For instance, when I interviewed a mother, whose life had been changed after her daughter was raped, I showed how I accompanied her to different places, Changsha, Beijing, Guangzhou and so on, and in what situations I met the interviewees…I was fully present in the story, and I was always there.

(JB03)7

The argument is that making the journalists themselves visible in the texts is like exposing the backstage of journalism to the readers, and it helps to improve the transparency and credibility of the reporting. This approach is both a strategy to achieve authenticity and a defense against readers’ doubts about objectivity that engages the audience.

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Scenic description

Self-presentation by the author is often accompanied by elaborate environmental descriptions. By depicting the scene in which the event occurred and the characters acted, the journalist demonstrates what he or she has seen to the readers and invites them to experience the atmosphere and imagine the scene. Journalists believe that this is an effective strategy to create an immersive environment for readers and enhance the authenticity of the story. In their own words, they write with their pens to achieve the effect of “camera shooting” to record details and create a “scene feeling” that can “connect the story with the readers” (JB02).

In the aforementioned article about the serial murders in Baiyin, the journalist visualizes the neighborhood where one of the victims was killed twenty years ago, as follows:

In the living quarters of the fluorite salt factory, the sun began to slowly slope towards the west, casting longer and longer shadows from the buildings, like an irregular piece of black cloth. The factory had been shut down for several years. Musen (a colleague of the victim’s father) moved against the sun and greeted the old neighbors, who would recognize him and remember the old days. … I sat with Musan near a building and talked to him. The sun was still shining, the sky was turning blue, and the air was clear. … It was getting late and there was a cool breeze blowing. Musen sighed, “This place was not bad, it is just that it was poor”.

(No. 84)

By portraying the natural scenery of the neighborhood, the sun, the sky, the breeze, the air, the buildings, and the people, and highlighting their stunning beauty, the journalist engages readers to step into the story. On one hand, this reveals the context in which the interview took place, warranting the authenticity of the details of the murder that follow. On the other hand, it foreshadows a contrast between the peacefulness of nature and the cruelty of the murder, mobilizing readers’ emotions to deeply sympathize with the victim while strongly condemning the murderer.

6. Discussion

Amidst the heightened debate over objectivity versus subjectivity, this study examines how the alternative principle of authenticity is practiced in non-fiction journalism and how it might reconcile the conceptual divergence between these two—essentially complementary yet seemingly contradictory—ideals. Based on a case study of the practice of non-fiction journalism in Chinese media, we argue that two distinct dimensions are constitutive of authenticity: the presentation of voice and the construction of visibility. The former encompasses the utilization of first-person narratives by sources, the expression of the journalist’s authorial voice, and the orchestration of polyphony between the two. The latter pertains to the visual portrayal of sources, journalists, and the scenic depiction of context and environment.

Specifically, in the voice dimension, instead of abstracting or paraphrasing the words of their sources, non-fiction journalists tend to directly cite what their sources say in their reporting. To achieve authenticity, sources are allowed to tell their own stories in their own words. Such accounts are often intertwined with the voices of the journalists, who no longer conceal their personal stance for the sake of objective truth. Alternatively, they assume a subjective position and express their genuine perceptions of the subjects on whom they report. The utilization of dialogues between journalists and sources is common, and the various voices of sources and journalists create a sense of polyphony between them.

On the visibility level, in contrast with objective reporting that tends to omit details, non-fiction journalism places greater emphasis on portraying the visual imagery of the characters involved in the event and the complex and nuanced context of the scenes in which the event happens. At the same time, journalists are not hidden behind the text; they frequently make personal appearances in their reporting, showing readers how they arrive at scenes, encounter sources, or react to events. As journalists move from the back of the stage to the front, they involve themselves in the events they are reporting, performing as active participants and agentive actors in the news event on which they are reporting. They make themselves visible “as humans, not merely as fact-providers”, thus bridging “the self and the world beyond the self” (Steensen, 2017, pp. 26–28).

The theoretical significance of the study lies in two major aspects. The first concerns journalism. On the one hand, it signifies a reconsideration of the classic notion of journalistic objectivity and promotes its embrace of, and integration with, subjectivity. By positioning themselves not as detached outsiders but as attached insiders, and by telling stories not coldly and abstractly but with a humanistic touch and warmth, journalists emphasize presenting the textual nuances of social reality more than the dry facts. In the words of the journalists, they care about not only “truth” and “fact” but also “the subjectivity and complexity of human heart” (JB01). The practice of non-fiction journalism, as shown in the study, marks a departure from “the dominance of professional, expert, institutional knowledge” toward an emphasis on the distinct experiences and ideas of individuals (Markham, 2012, p. 192). The journalists generally appear to be keener to act as representatives of personal voices than as the voice of the profession and the institution for which they work.

Secondly, the study sheds light on the theoretical discussion of the notion of authenticity. As a socially constructed concept, authenticity plays an important role in commerce, art, culture, and even politics in contemporary society (Trilling, 1972). It appears to be even more prominent today, as digital modernity, characterized by social acceleration and virtualization, has produced a backlash among people who desire more genuine, authentic, and humanistic encounters with reality. However, relatively little attention is paid to authenticity in journalism. By extending the notion to the study of journalistic writing, we have shown how the value shift toward greater emphasis on the “self” in constructing and comprehending reality has (re-)shaped and (re-)structured the practice of one of the most publicly oriented and universally accessed text genres in contemporary society. The two-dimensional framework of voice and visibility also adds to the analytical repertoire for the performance of authenticity.

7. Conclusions

This study has examined how non-fiction journalism in China constructs authenticity through voice and visibility, offering a fresh perspective on the enduring objectivity-subjectivity debate. The findings highlight authenticity as a complementary principle to objectivity rather than a rejection of it. By integrating subjective storytelling with factual reporting, authenticity enables journalists to navigate the tension between objectivity and subjectivity, producing stories that are not only informative but also emotionally resonant and socially relevant. As journalism continues to evolve in response to the challenges of digital modernity and societal fragmentation, the principles of authenticity explored in this study offer valuable insights for reimagining journalistic practices and fostering deeper connections with audiences. By prioritizing the voices of individuals and making the journalistic process more visible, authenticity demonstrates its potential to enhance the relevance, credibility, and humanistic appeal of journalism in an increasingly complex media landscape. Future research could expand on these findings by exploring the performance of authenticity across diverse journalistic practices and national contexts. Such investigations would further illuminate how authenticity can be adapted and applied to address the evolving needs of journalism in a rapidly changing world.