"What We Now Believe is the Truth": Apologia, Presence, and Narrative in This American Life's "Retraction" Episode

Abstract

This thesis explores This American Life's "Retraction" episode as a unique type of apologia, a retraction in the journalistic sense, which uses narrative to correct an earlier broadcast episode containing factual errors. Host Ira Glass attempts not only to set the record straight (and provide a new radio experience to replace the offending one), but also to repair his image, and assert the status of his show as a serious journalistic program. To do so, he uses elements of William Benoit's image restoration strategies to distance himself from Mike Daisey's fictional storytelling, and uses stylistic choices within his narrative to create presence for the audience that reflect values of journalism such as the principle of "eyewitnessing."