#1 Na Sint-Maarten deelt de Voedselbank vooral veel snoep uit (en dat is niet erg gezond), 17 november 2014
https://decorrespondent.nl/2061/Na-Sint-Maarten-deelt-de-Voedselbank-vooral-veel-snoep-uit-en-dat-is-niet-erg-gezond/166805827254-116d6a50
#2 Hier schreef George Orwell zijn profetische meesterwerk 1984, 18 juli 2014
https://decorrespondent.nl/1472/Hier-schreef-George-Orwell-zijn-profetische-meesterwerk-1984/119135457408-54fc8840
#3 Sodeju, of de eeuwige strijd van de Bond tegen Vloeken, 20 augustus 2014
https://decorrespondent.nl/1609/Sodeju-of-de-eeuwige-strijd-van-de-Bond-tegen-Vloeken/130223472126-b1ca77b5
#4 De Q-koorts is weg, maar het lijden is nog niet voorbij in Herpen, 1 juli 2014 https://decorrespondent.nl/1382/De-Q-koorts-is-weg-maar-het-lijden-is-nog-niet-voorbij-in-Herpen/111851360148-678a15cc
#5 En opeens stonden de asielzoekers en de staatssecretaris oog in oog, 24 april 2014
https://decorrespondent.nl/1076/En-opeens-stonden-de-asielzoekers-en-de-staatssecretaris-oog-in-oog/87085429464-486c3cb5
#6 De man die voor de rechter moest bewijzen dat hij in leven was, 27 februari 2014 https://decorrespondent.nl/786/De-man-die-voor-de-rechter-moest-bewijzen-dat-hij-in-leven-was/63614449404-3fc289aa
#7 De moeder die plotseling gecremeerd bleek, 20 februari 2014
81
ANNEX 2
In this Annex I have collected the memos I made about my thoughts, questions and insights during the selection of the data.
On sample selection. 30 articles seem to be a representative amount. The question is whether to look into 10 articles of 3 authors, or whether I should look into 6 articles by the 5 authors most prone to use irony in their articles. Because this thesis specialises in the analysis of the written word, the satirical videos posted by “Snijtafel” will not be considered. However, the study of outputs by De Correspondent, besides the written ones, is important to gather a more complete insight into how De Correspondent as media producer uses irony in its output rather than how the different authors of De Correspondent use it.
The main difficulty in the selection of the 30 articles was in deciding on the journalistic and ironic properties of the articles. In the articles by Marcel van Roosmalen, for example, irony was easily recognizable. It was, however, difficult to decide whether they were also journalistic in their essence, because the writing style and genre differed so much from the norms and conventions we know from the objectivity regime. After quite some deliberation, I argue that they are indeed journalistic by nature.
Even though the articles by van Roosmalen do not fit the norms and conventions we are used in journalistic articles, that does not directly mean we cannot consider them journalistic. The very founding principles of De Correspondent dictate that journalism should go beyond “the issues of the day”
During the sample selection, I noticed that I was mainly looking for the explicit use of irony, excluding situational ironies. When I noticed that, I concluded that that bias towards the sample was not productive. The question I asked is: How is irony used in the articles published on De Correspondent?” In order to answer that question, I need to be open to the analysis of all types of irony.
In the first reading of the articles by Marcel van Roosmalen, the irony he uses makes me think of the kind we find in the work by Grunberg. I feel the work by van Roosmalen calls forth the type of alienation that Grunberg also uses in his work (see Harbers). Through this alienation, readers are allowed to look at the world differently. Use of irony as way of disclosing ambiguity.
Having doubts about including the work of Daan Windhorst. It is definitely meant to be satirical. He is, after all, the Correspondent Satire. However, this leads us to the discussion of whether or not we should consider satire as a form of irony. And if that is the case, how about sarcasm? In the case of van Roosmalen, for me the main consideration was to look for a broader meaning. After some consideration, I did consider it to be journalism, although less orthodox. Now, in the case of Windhorst, the articles need to convey a sense of saying something about society in general or certain cultures in particular. It cannot, however be some form of a column. In this research I am not analysing how individuals voice their opinions. Rather, I want to find out how journalists use irony in their journalistic articles.
If Joris van Casteren uses irony in his work, it is used very subtly. His irony is not found explicitly. More often, I get the feeling that maybe what he’s saying isn’t entirely meant like that, but the intended meaning is not eminent. This makes me think of the “eye of the beholder” school of irony-research. (eg Barbe, Hutcheon,).
It is important to note that in many of the articles by De Correspondent do not seem to use irony as a means to convey a more ambiguous worldview. This says something about my presupposition that the correspondent might tend to use more irony in their journalistic work. It might still be true. I cannot say anything about that now, because I am not conducting a comparative analysis between different media in this thesis. What is clear though, is that the correspondent does not necessarily reject articles when irony is used. On the contrary. There are clearly journalistic initiatives at De Correspondent which intend to be ironic. For example the correspondent Satire – Daan Windhorst – and the correspondenten Kritiek en Politieke
cultuur – De Snijtafel – definitely intend to be ironic, with the aim of showing the possibility of
multiple truths.
In his biography, published on De Correspondent, Daan Windhorst himself says: “Daan Windhorst is op zoek naar de verhalen achter de verhalen achter de verhalen achter de waan van de dag.” For me this is a (maybe even ironic?) way of saying: I want to search for the stories beyond the first representation of reality.
83
ANNEX 3
In this Annex you find the memos I kept for all of the ironic instances I found during the second thorough round of reading. In this second round I read three articles per correspondent. I then used these memos to develop the coding scheme (see Annex 4) and to gain a deep understanding into how these ironies work.