239
International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics
Volume 11 Number 2
© 2015 Intellect Ltd Commentaries. English language. doi: 10.1386/macp.11.2.239_3
CoMMeNtarIes
Cristina arChetti
University of oslo
Bringing back emotion,
imagination and the
senses: Creative writing
in journalism research
Creative writing for aCademiC purposes
In the last fifteen years, across the social sciences, there has been a prolif-
eration of creative writing applications to research. Examples of this trend,
which has recently been referred to with the umbrella term of ‘poetic enquiry’
(Prendergast et al. 2009), can be located across a range of disciplines, from
nursing and social work, to anthropology, geography and feminist studies,
just to name a few (Prendergast 2009: xxi). Monica Prendergast, in compiling
a detailed annotated bibliography of existing academic research that incorpo-
rates elements of creative writing, finds not only that Poet’s Corner sections
figure regularly on the pages of a range of peer-reviewed journals (e.g., Social
Work, American Anthropologist, or the Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies) (2009:
xx), she also identifies a sheer variety of terms and practices: among 40 differ-
ent labels she lists are ‘data poetry’, ‘field poetry’, ‘research-generated poetry’,
‘poetic analysis’, ‘investigative poetry’ … (2009: xx–xxi).