Profile Pieces Journalism and the 'Human Interest' Bias [Hardcover]

This book examines the history, theory and journalistic practice of profile writing. Profiles, and the practice of writing them, are of increasing interest to scholars of journalism because conflicts between the interviewer and the subject exemplify the changing nature of journalism itself. While the subject, often through the medium of their press representative, struggles to retain control of the interview space, the journalist seeks to subvert it. This interesting and multi-layered interaction, however, has rarely been subject to critical scrutiny, partly because profiles have traditionally been regarded as public relations exercises or as soft journalism. However, chapters in this volume reveal not only that profiling has, historically, taken many different forms, but that the idea of the interview as a contested space has applications beyond the subject of celebrated individuals. The volume looks at the profiles historical beginnings, at the contemporary manufacture of celebrity versus the ordinary, at profiling communities, countries and movements, at profiling the destitute, at sporting personalities and finally at profiling and trauma.

Introduction: ProfilingPainting a Picture in Words Richard Lance Keeble and Sue Joseph  Section I: History of the Profile: From Canterbury Talesto the Present Day  1. The Pre-History of Profiles, 1380-1800: Chaucer, News Ballads, the English Civil War and Boswell Grant Hannis  2. Profiling Pitt: The First Political Profile and its Legacies Nikki Hessell  3. Precursor to the Profile: The Character Sketch in Colonial Australia Willa McDonald  4. Profile and Counter-Profile: On Joseph Mitchells Joe Goulds Mateus Yuri Passos  5. The Return of the Long-Form Profile: A Case Study of the Quarterly Essayand The Monthlyin Australia Matthl&