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Narrative Inquiry: Online-First ArticlesAssessing coherence and fidelity
Credibility of COVID-19 narratives
Non-fictional narratives have an open-ended character that projects roles and values to those who participate in
them. Narrative participation, in turn, entails narrative assessment and identification processes, through which adherence to
values and positions may fail or be achieved. In the analysis of interviews with university students across Turkey, we draw on
Fisher’s narrative paradigm to focus on how our participants carry out assessments of narrative credibility. To elucidate
narrative coherence and fidelity, we take inspiration from an argumentative-rhetorical perspective, and focus specifically on the
relationship among the criteria identified in the literature on narrative assessment. Our study of interviewee evaluations of
COVID-19 narratives confirms the use of the coherence criteria, calls into question the fidelity criteria, and highlights the
relevance of identification as a basic process for fidelity assessments. We conclude by discussing our limitations and directions
for further research.
Keywords: non-fictional narrative assessment, coherence, fidelity, identification, COVID-19 narratives, conspiracy theories, interviews
Article outline
- Introduction
- Narrative and argumentative perspectives
- Identification and participation in narratives
- Setting applicable criteria for narrative assessment
- Interview study
- Assessment of pandemic narratives in interviews
- Assessing narrative coherence
- Assessing narrative fidelity
- Conclusion
- Notes
-
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