{"id":17135,"date":"2026-04-30T19:15:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T19:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/?p=17135"},"modified":"2026-04-30T21:46:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T21:46:48","slug":"lessons-for-journalists-power-of-narrative-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2026\/04\/30\/lessons-for-journalists-power-of-narrative-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Look beyond the headlines \u2014 and five other lessons for journalists from Power of Narrative 2026"},"content":{"rendered":" \n
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The 28th Power of Narrative conference<\/a> returned to Boston University on March 27 and 28. Journalists, authors, podcast producers, and filmmakers came to the second floor of the George Sherman Union to share the lessons they\u2019ve learned from their work. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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We’ve already shared a few notes from this year’s conference<\/a>, including Nieman Storyboard editor Mark Armstrong’s Power of Narrative conversation with \u201cLondon Falling\u201d author and New Yorker staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe<\/a>. Now, here are six more takeaways from a weekend full of inspiration and education: <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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1. Find the narrative, don’t build it: Ken Burns<\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Ken Burns, whose latest PBS documentary series was 2025’s \u201cThe American Revolution,\u201d<\/a> created a history of the colonies before, during, and after gaining independence from the British \u2014 fitting it all into six episodes, or 12 hours. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Burns said the material often spoke for itself. The desire to seek out the truth is central to his work, but he\u2019s often dealing with \u201cgrades of imperfection\u201d since there is no such thing as objectivity, he said. But the story will tell you if it\u2019s important to include.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cThe greatest thing I love to hear is what I left out,\u201d he said. \u201cBring it on \u2026 I know exactly the thing, I made a decision to leave that out. We\u2019re not an encyclopedia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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What also tends to speak for itself is the narrative. Burns gives an example of a mother named Rebecca Tanner of the Mohegan tribe from Connecticut<\/a> who lost five sons fighting for the Patriot cause. There were many women, children, and enslaved people that fought on either side of the conflict. It’s Burns’s job to collect those lost or hidden stories.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cYou find [narratives]. You never tried to build it. It\u2019s there, and it\u2019s inherent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Burns acknowledged that current times are fraught, divided, and unpredictable. But so were the times during the Revolution, Civil War, and Vietnam War. He said there are \u201cfeatures of right now that are hugely terrifying and ought to be talked about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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While Burns feels confident in telling these complex historical narratives, he said it took decades to get to that point. He realized that he knew how to do the work, even if something goes awry. And he leans into the unknown, working out the problem and coming out the other side having learned something.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cYou have to first know that you have something to say, and that has to do with an incredible amount of introspection about what you want and who you are and what your capabilities are,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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2. Telling someone’s story without a \u2018perfect interview\u2019: Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio and Jazmin Aguilera, The Boston Globe<\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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The detention of Tufts University student R\u00fcmeysa \u00d6zt\u00fcrk in March 2025 was one of the earliest moments in Trump’s second term that the nation witnessed increased aggression by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on the streets across the country.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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The Boston Globe followed the story since \u00d6zt\u00fcrk’s arrest and detainment, publishing dozens of articles. Behind the scenes, Globe team members including senior audio producer Jazmin Aguilera and immigration reporter Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio worked to bring \u00d6zt\u00fcrk\u2019s story even closer to readers and listeners, creating the two-part podcast series, \u201cR\u00fcmeysa \u00d6zt\u00fcrk: An American Story.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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The central question the team sought to answer was, \u201cWhy had the Trump administration chosen R\u00fcmeysa to arrest?\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cWe very quickly started learning that she wasn\u2019t a protester or an activist that you would usually think of using those words on campus. She\u2019s a very quiet, soft-spoken student. She loves children, she was simply passionate about the rights of children,\u201d McDonnell Nieto del Rio said. \u201cWe wondered how the Trump administration had even found her, and those were answers we didn\u2019t think we were going to get directly from officials, and so we had to figure out basically other ways to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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McDonnell Nieto del Rio saw that professors were suing the Trump administration over an ideological deportation policy, and she started attending hearings in Boston. She saw ICE agents take the stand to testify, and she learned that they had most likely discovered \u00d6zt\u00fcrk through a website that doxed protesters.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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The team then went on to acquire hundreds of pages of court documents and hours of video footage to tell a bigger story. It also helped add context to Trump\u2019s immigration enforcement crackdown, a story that was \u201ctouching everyone,\u201d McDonnell Nieto del Rio said.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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One challenge for the team: how to tell a great narrative without a \u201cperfect interview\u201d with the central character. They were able to get written answers from \u00d6zt\u00fcrk during the reporting process, but it wasn\u2019t quite what they expected. They largely turned to other characters around \u00d6zt\u00fcrk, such as her lawyer, a woman who was detained with her in Louisiana, and even the man who got the viral video footage of \u00d6zt\u00fcrk being taken off the street by ICE officers.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cWe all think the dream is to have the perfect interview with the person at the center of the piece. But I think there are a lot of other ways to go about these stories too,\u201d McDonnell Nieto del Rio said. \u201cAnd what’s great about having restrictions on a story is that it forces you to be creative and find workarounds, and sometimes you’ll get things from those workarounds that you wouldn’t have already gotten.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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3. Look beyond the headlines for the hidden stories: The New Yorker’s Sarah Stillman<\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Sarah Stillman. (Photo by Leire Garrogerricaechebarria.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div> \n
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The first story New Yorker staff writer Sarah Stillman ever reported was during her senior year in college. She saw a Fox News report while at the gym with the headline \u201cBody Found in Lake Is Not Missing Fla. Girl,\u201d about the 2005 search  for the missing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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When Stillman saw the report, she wondered about the woman whose body was found in the lake. She went back to her dorm room and called the sheriff\u2019s office in Florida and asked for the woman\u2019s name, revealed to be Donna Cooke. Once she got it, she did a background check on her and found her last known address. Stillman traveled to Florida and learned about Cooke\u2019s story \u2014 about her prostitution charges, and being brought on as a confidential informant for police, which led to her death. Stillman later wrote about confidential informants for The New Yorker, 2012’s \u201cThe Throwaways.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cOne of my very first reporting experiences then became the story, not just of telling who Donna was, but also of telling how she wound up there, which had to do a lot with current U.S. drug enforcement policies around how we use confidential informants,\u201d Stillman said. \u201cIt\u2019s been incredibly guiding to me as a journalist, learning to watch news headlines and seeing where is something not adding up for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Stillman also learned that the best stories come from learning one\u2019s strengths. After joining The New Yorker, she went to cover Iraq and Afghanistan during the Iraq war. She didn\u2019t know the nuanced history of the Middle East and certainly didn\u2019t know the language, but she sought out stories using her background.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Stillman, whose family included labor workers, always thought about how labor fit into a bigger story. Through that lens, she reported on thousands of international workers being sent to Iraq to do menial jobs on military bases. She spoke with hundreds of these workers<\/a> and found they had been sent to the bases under false pretenses and also found cases of sexual assault.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cSo much of what I think is the most compelling kind of narrative journalism is thinking about, \u2018Where are people encountering black holes, whether it\u2019s policy or whether it\u2019s of the existing narratives?\u2019\u201d Stillman said. \u201cHow do we create narratives that push back on that and actually fill in the blanks and ask for accountability?\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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4. Showing the true humanity of a bombing victim: Rhana Natour and Seyward Darby, The Atavist Magazine<\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Over 1,000 children in Gaza lost a limb in the first two months of the war. That statistic stuck with freelance journalist Rhana Natour as she considered covering a conflict that has produced the largest number of child amputees in history. Natour spoke with photojournalist Eman Mohammed and learned that some organizations had been helping young children from Gaza come to the U.S.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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She said finding stories from the Israel-Hamas war proved difficult, as international journalists could not access the region directly. But children were \u201ccoming to us\u201d and could shed light on the war and their experience. Natour’s National Magazine Award-winning story, \u201cComing to America,\u201d<\/a> featuring photos by Mohammed, was published in The Atavist Magazine in July 2024. It tells the story of a 14-year-old girl named Layan Albaz who lost her legs in an Israeli airstrike that also killed many of her family members.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Natour learned she needed to equip herself with the right reporting tools to handle the story with sensitivity. She understood she was talking to a child that had gone through significant trauma in the last month. She consulted experts in childhood trauma ahead of speaking with Layan and other children. She also had Mohammed, who\u2019s fluent in Arabic and has a deep understanding of Middle Eastern culture, to translate for Natour.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Some of these practices included \u201casking them frequently if you want to take a break, or the way that you approach a child,\u201d Natour said. \u201cThe underlying suggestion is \u2026 that child doesn’t want to feel obligated to tell you anything. You don’t want to exhaust them through the interview process. You don\u2019t want to do harm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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But before Natour met Layan, she was described as \u201cangry,\u201d \u201cmoody,\u201d \u201cfurious,\u201d and \u201cmean.\u201d She wasn\u2019t the sad and gracious \u201cperfect victim\u201d that Natour may have expected. Natour leaned heavily into writing about that anger.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cIf in a story you come up against an obstacle, don’t think of it as something, \u2018Oh gosh, I need to somehow tuck this under the narrative.\u2019 Maybe it\u2019s actually part of the narrative. Maybe it makes for a richer story,\u201d said Seyward Darby, Natour’s editor on the story and editor in chief of The Atavist. \u201cShe is trying to assert agency. She’s trying to process trauma. She is trying to regain a sense of control in her life. She\u2019s furious that so many people and institutions failed her. So maybe her anger is part of the story. Maybe it is the story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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5. Building a literary toolbox: Jabari Asim<\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Jabari Asim. (Photo by Leire Garrogerricaechebarria.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div> \n
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Jabari Asim, a professor at Emerson College who has published 23 books including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, essays, and children\u2019s books, likes to visualize his audience before beginning a project. He thinks of three different readers: himself (and his appetite for something he\u2019s interested in or hasn\u2019t seen anywhere else), someone who isn\u2019t attracted to the subject matter at first but would read something that is well written, and someone who is adversarial to the topic he writes about.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Asim, who was previously an editor at The Washington Post and editor in chief at the NAACP\u2019s magazine The Crisis, also visualizes the finished product. \u201cI see the book on the shelf. I see the spine. I see my name. I see the title. I see the color scheme. So I convinced myself that on some level, somewhere, my book already exists, and now it\u2019s just a matter of working backwards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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He’s a big believer in the \u201cass to chair\u201d theory of writing \u2014 and letting every idea spill onto the pages of the notebook with little distraction. He also encouraged finding a routine or habit that unlocks a creative flow state, whether it\u2019s a regimented routine like that of Haruki Murakami <\/a>or just some good beer and pizza. Either way, \u201cConsistency is the operating principle. Find what works for you and stick to it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Asim keeps a \u201ccommonplace book\u201d that contains profound phrases, observations or ideas that convey an element of style or prose that informs his own work. The book reminds him that he is entering into a collective discussion, and his ideas may only add onto what has already been expressed, keeping him grounded. The quotes in his book include the likes of Toni Morrison, Mary Oliver, Robert Frost, Andrei Tarkovsky, and many others.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Asim said he creates rough outlines, and it evolves as he goes through multiple drafts. After having a comprehensive outline, he can shuffle parts around and jump from place to place when writing (he said this is an antidote to writer\u2019s block for him). In his drafts, he often highlights a \u201cgolden paragraph\u201d that showcases everything he was trying to achieve and compares that paragraph to the rest of his paragraphs to see how he can strengthen the others.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Cleanliness, precision, ease and force are Asim\u2019s four elements for writing. For cleanliness, \u201cDon\u2019t give [publishers] a chance to dismiss you easily. Get rid of all typos, grammatical errors and misspellings.\u201d For precision, quoting E. B. White, \u201comit needless words.\u201d For ease, \u201cNever let your readers see you sweat. Successful writing tends to be a fingerprints-free exercise.\u201d For force, \u201cYour conclusion presents the final opportunity to close the sale, to gather your narrative momentum and drive home the full eloquence and fury of your prose.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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6. Becoming less of a stranger in a small town: Keith O\u2019Brien<\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Keith O’Brien. (Photo by Leire Garrogerricaechebarria.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div> \n
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Keith O\u2019Brien, an award-winning author and journalist whose work has appeared in New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, and Rolling Stone, wanted to dig into the early years of Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird. But Bird is a notoriously private person, rarely doing interviews or projects unless he has some control over it. So it came as no surprise when Bird couldn\u2019t be reached for O\u2019Brien\u2019s recently published book, \u201cHeartland,\u201d<\/a> covering his high school career in his hometown of French Lick, Indiana.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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O\u2019Brien didn\u2019t necessarily need Bird\u2019s participation for the story. He wanted to tell a \u201ccompelling human narrative.\u201d Perhaps Bird would have told a completely different story about those early years than the people around him that shaped his future career. To get those outside voices, he collected phone numbers and started calling around. Nobody answered him.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cI need to invest in the story,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cIf people aren\u2019t calling me back, maybe what I need to do is just go to French Lick. And so that\u2019s what I did: bought a plane ticket, got a rental car and booked a room at the Best Western on the edge of town. And then before I left with those numbers and those addresses that I knew were right, I reached out again \u2026 and it was then that people started getting back in touch with me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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One of the important figures in Bird\u2019s life that O\u2019Brien identified was his father Joey Bird. He was a well-known person in town but struggled a lot; a few months after his son graduated high school, he took his own life. Since neither of the Birds could \u2014 or would \u2014 speak to him, O\u2019Brien learned about Joey Bird through military records, newspaper clippings in the public library, and at the local bar in town.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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O\u2019Brien could feel that he was out of place, especially at the bar where he had to immediately introduce himself and his intentions. But he quickly started to acquaint himself with Bird\u2019s high school friends, college teammates, and mentors. There was one person he still couldn\u2019t get a hold of who was essential for the story: Bird\u2019s high school coach, Jim Jones.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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In a last-ditch effort, O\u2019Brien decided to drive to Jones\u2019s home an hour outside of French Lick. He knocked on the door and his wife answered. After a few moments, Jones came to the door and wordlessly let O\u2019Brien through. They talked for the next three hours in Jones\u2019s kitchen, where Jones showed O\u2019Brien a custom Larry Bird championship-style ring and a letter from Bird to Jones, thanking him for all he\u2019d done.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cI knew two things for certain,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cFirst was, I had this story, whether Larry Bird was talking to me or not. I had it. And number two, I knew that I was not a stranger in this place anymore. I belonged here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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***<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Emilia Wisniewski<\/em><\/a> is a general assignment reporter and engagement editor at the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire. She previously worked at Boston.com and The Boston Globe as a correspondent where she covered <\/em>local politics<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>business<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>health<\/em><\/a>, and <\/em>environment<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Subscribe to Storyboard<\/h2>\n \n
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Get insights into the craft of journalism and storytelling in your inbox, delivered on Fridays.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n \n

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Storytelling advice from Ken Burns, the Boston Globe, The New Yorker’s Sarah Stillman, The Atavist, Jabari Asim, and Keith O\u2019Brien <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17136,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[429,427,425,510],"topics":[],"authors":[465],"issue":[],"class_list":["post-17135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essays-on-craft","tag-books","tag-documentary","tag-podcasts","tag-power-of-narrative","authors-emilia-wisniewski"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLook beyond the headlines \u2014 and five other lessons for journalists from Power of Narrative 2026 - Nieman Storyboard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Storytelling advice from Ken Burns, the Boston Globe, The New Yorker's Sarah Stillman, The Atavist, Jabari Asim, and Keith O\u2019Brien\" 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