Constructed Personal Identity Narrative 2

INTRODUCTION
The newspapers are known for their job of selectively publishing and disseminating ‘information about recent events that are of interest to a sufficient large group, or that may affect the lives of a sufficiently large group’. These information are otherwise called news stories. In other words, they are an ‘account of imaginary or past events, narrative tale’ etc. In essence, news stories can be called narratives, in that “a narrative is a recognizable story” (Loseke 2007:2).
The point, however, is that narratives are written and or told by someone or people for the consumption of some specific people or audience. Whereas, more often than not, stories written and or told are always about a person or some people. This means that these people may have been constructed, for, according to Loseke (2007), “stories are constructed”. In essence, a character in a newspaper story may have been constructed, and if so, for the mere fact that “narratives construct identity” (Loseke, 2007:2), then the character’s identity in that context has been constructed.
According to Loseke (2007: 2), “narratives create identity at all levels of human social life”. She explains that at the macro-level, stories told produce cultural identities (“the imagined characteristics of disembodied types of people that simplify a complex world and construct symbolic boundaries around types of social actors”); at the meso-level, stories told produce both institutional identities (“the imagined characteristics of the targets of policy or law which justify policy decisions and therefore legitimize institutional arrangements promoting freedom or constraint”) and organizational identities (“produced by increasingly common organizations and groups explicitly in the business of structuring and reconfiguring personal identity”); at the micro-level, stories told produce personal identities (the self-understandings of unique, embodied selves about their selves”). In other words, “narratives of identity therefore are produced at cultural, institutional, organizational, and individual levels of social life” (Loseke, 2007:2).
In essence therefore, this essay aims to analyse the narrative, that is, the story in the New York Times (see appendix). It will do this using just one of the four narrative identities (personal) as a framework. The objective is explore personal narrative identity; indicate categories of personal identities constructed in the newspaper; and give a sense of how the media may have mediated in constructing those personal identities.

Exploring Personal Narrative Identity
The identity of the self is that which is usually consciously constructed. And there is always “the sense of a need for a coherent identity by social actors”(Loseke 2007:10), that is, a constructed good personal identity is always wanted to remain the same forever. However, the question therefore is “how a sense of identity consistency can be constructed within a world that can be nonsuportive, or even antagonistic to, such coherence” (Loseke 2007:10)? This implies that , in a narrative, writers or storytellers, whether consciously or subconsciously, usually construct varying personal identities of the same character.
In a newspaper narrative, for example, authors produce narratives which are claimed to be subjective, that is, they present stories exactly the way they were collected from the source. However, “stories that seem too different from culturally sanctioned narratives might be evaluated as untrue, [thus], people must use socially circulating stories as a members’ resource in crafting their own narratives of personal identity” (Loseke 2007:11). This socially circulating stories, as preferred by Loseke (2007:4), are called ‘formula stories’.
According to Loseke (2007:4), formula stories refer to “narratives of typical actors engaging in typical behaviours within typical plots leading to expectable moral evaluations”. She further explains that “socially circulated formula stories are continually created, modified, challenged, and discarded”. D’ Andrade (1995, cited in Loseke 2007:4), argues that “there is considerable evidence that broadly circulating formula stories function in the background of thinking, provide hypotheses, and sometimes filter perceptions in daily life”. In other words, formula stories are evaluative stories.
Further more, given that formula stories are continually created, modified, challenged, and discarded, “social actors cannot simply appropriate them”. (Loseke 2007:14) This is because it is not a clear-cut affair figuring out “what types of stories and what types of identities are socially valued”.(Loseke 2007:14). In other words, personal identities that may have been created and or constructed in a prior formula story may not be valued as compared to before. For example, “the ‘gay as deviant’ story competes with the ‘glad to be a gay’ story (Plummer 1995, cited in Loseke 200:14). Hence, social actors must consider the context of their publication before producing narratives.
Finally, formula stories are of course different from narratives of personal identities. While formula stories build from cultural identity narratives, personal identity narratives do not. However, they are both integrative and effective. A social actor, though may not appropriate a formula story for a personal identity narrative, may modified it for example, thus integrating it to fit for a personal identity narrative. More so, “effective formula stories achieve their clarity by bracketing indeterminacy and complexity, while effective narratives of personal identity are those integrating the disparate roles and values in an individual life.
ANALYSIS
To Start with, the prior formula story incorporated into the newspaper to be analysed can be called “the spicy personal life of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi”, as presented in paragraph one. This is because it is stated that, for months, the story about Berlusconi’s personal life has been the major story in the Avvenire newspaper. Moreover, Berlusconi’s personal identity is here constructed as ‘interesting’, in that the word ‘spicy’ suggests that he is hot, attractive etc.
Moreover, paragraph two gives a sense of change in the formula story. Here, another character, Dino Boffo, is introduced. Boffo is constructed as being ‘decisive’. This is suggested by the phrase he “began to weigh in”, a phrase which implies Boffo wrote something offensive to some one. Although, what was written against Berlusconi is not told; paragraph three, however, implies that Boffo wrote something against him. Hence, Boffo’s identity in paragraph four is constructed as the ‘offender’, as it is stated that he is “out of a job”, meaning that Boffo lost his job.
More so, in paragraph five, another identity seems to have been constructed of Boffo. He is constructed as a ‘homosexual’. Although this may not be true, the concurrent identity constructed here of Berlusconi is ‘the aggrieved’, who is using his brother’s newspapers to batter the image of is enemy. In essence, by consequence, Boffo’s identity is constructed as ‘the enemy’.
This is confirmed in paragraph six, where it is written: “The lesson: No one can mess with Silvio Berlusconi, not even the church.” Apart from the fact the enemy identity is being constructed for Boffo, one can notice that the same is being constructed for the church: “not even the church”. Berlusconi is here therefore constructed as the ‘warrior’ whom cannot be messed with, who will fight his enemies at all cost.
However, in paragraph seven, Berlusconi’s identity is constructed as ‘negligent’. He is said to have neglected his public duty for “efforts to clear his name”. Moreover, this identity only but implies two contrastive identities : ‘innocent’ and ‘not innocent’. One is led to evaluate Berlusconi’s action, asking questions as to why he is bothering himself so much on the issue if he is innocent of the allegation; and whether he is only trying so hard to clear his name because he is not innocent.
More so, the underlying implication of the negligent identity is an identity bound for ‘revenge’, constructing Berlusconi as a character seriously making a plan for revenge against his enemy. In paragraphs eight and nine however, the identity constructed by implication ( ‘revenge’) is refuted. Thus, Berlusconi’s identity is modified as ‘meek’. He is basically a humble person who, though “has an ego, has no plan to revenge”. Hence, he rather jokes over the matter (“i am not a saint”), for, though he has appeared to be trying very hard to clear his name, he regards it has trivial, however.
In paragraph ten, Berlusconi’s identity is constructed as being ‘defensive’. One is actually made to get the sense that he defends himself at all cost, even to the extent of filing a “defamation law suit of one million dollars against several publication that have been critical of him”. Again this raises questions as to whether he is innocent or not innocent. The fact that he filed the suit may suggest that he is very defensive of the criticism that may have been levied against him. Therefore, the implicit identity constructed of him in this paragraph is ‘not innocent.’
In paragraph eleven, Berlusconi’s identity is constructed as being ‘insubordinate’. He appears insubordinate to the church, and this could harm him politically. Given that “ the Catholic Church remains the essential institution, Italians care which candidates have its implicit support.” Therefore, if Berlusconi continues to demonstrate the insubordination, his hope of being re-elected will be crushed.
In paragraph twelve, the ‘enemy’ identity is constructed for both Berlusconi and the church. They are constructed as being enemies to each other. The implication of these is that Berlusconi’s identity, here, is then implicitly constructed as a ‘loser’. Here, referring to him losing at the next elections, given that he would have lost the support of the church.
While Berlusconi is constructed in paragraph thirteen as the ‘defendant’, Boffo is constructed as the ‘accuser’. Thus, one gets the sense that the allegation against Berlusconi is just a mere allegation, it is not true until proven otherwise. Moreover, Boffo’s identity is also in this paragraph reiterated as ‘gay’, however, this identity is constructed in way that it can be contested. The gay identity is also an allegation, and it is not true until proven otherwise.
In paragraph fourteen, Berlusconi is constructed as being ‘famous’, due to the incessant publication cum allegation about his sex life. Implicitly, the identity implied of him here is again ‘innocent’. In paragraph fifteen however, Boffo’s identity is constructed as ‘calm’. He appears as someone who is not quick to anger, or does not see a reason to trade words as a means to defend himself. Hence, the implicit identity here is that Boffo is constructed as ‘not defensive’.
In paragraph sixteen, Boffo is constructed as a ‘harasser’. It is somewhat made a fact that he is indeed a ‘harasser’, given that a judge attested to it. However, according to the newspaper, “Boffo denies that he has made a harassing phone calls. One can observe that the word allegation, which would have suggested that what the judge said might not be true, is omitted. Thus, the fact that Boffo denies the supposed truth, implicitly constructs him as a ‘liar’. The constructed identity of him as a liar in paragraph sixteen, i suppose, affects paragraphs seventeen, eighteen and nineteen. Although Boffo is constructed as being the ‘defendant’ in those paragraphs. His statements of pity, however, appear as lies- paragraphs twenty and twenty-one also reflect the same construction him.
Finally, in paragraph twenty-two, what surfaces again is the constructed ‘enemy’ identity of both Berlusconi and the church. While paragraphs twenty-three and four again surfaces the constructed negligent identity of Berlusconi. However, as opposed to resurfacing constructed identity, the identity constructed of Berlusconi is different in the last paragraph. He is constructed as being ‘in denial’.
CONCLUSION
The analysis above, i suppose, show the emergent formula story. This formula stories can be called the ‘church-state tension’, with Boffo representing the church and Berlusconi representing the state. In essence, the prior formula story, ‘the spicy life of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’, is not discarded but modified. Moreover, constructed personal identities are not coherent. For example, at one point, Berlusconi is constructed as innocent, at the other, not innocent. Perhaps one can say that , in a narrative, the construction of a personal identity is done in order to fit the intended formula story. This is because all the constructed personal identities of both Berlusconi and Boffo reflect the tension between the church and state. Moreover, some personal identities were explicitly constructed while, some, implicitly constructed. Readers may want to believe the character whose personal identity is consistently nourished. In my opinion, Berlusconi’s personal identity was consistently nourished. This gives one the sense that the media may have mediated by selecting and constructing consistent good personal identity of Berlusconi.

REFERENCE
Loseke, Donileen R. 2007. The Study of Identity as Cultural, Institutional, Organizational, and Personal Narratives: Theoretical and Empirical Integrations. The Sociological Quarterly 48:661-688.