Folklore in a Hurry: The Community Experience Narrative in Newspaper Coverage of the Loma Prieta Earthquake

Personal experience narratives are staples of newspaper reporting. Though the stories are elicited, summarized, and retold in the third person as community experience narratives, they retain their power to make sense of experience and to bind readers into a symbolic community. This study examines coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco newspapers to explore some of the methodological and ethical issues that confront reporters and folklorists who elicit and inscribe personal experience narratives.