Narrative Journalism Teaches Reporters to See Life Through Others' Eyes

Veteran journalist Zita Arocha shows how to use fiction's tools while staying rigorously factual

Mar. 22, 2026 at 4:33pm

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Zita Arocha, a distinguished bilingual journalist, author, educator, and former executive director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), teaches multimedia journalism at the University of Texas at El Paso. She helps a new generation of writers discover the power of narrative journalism - using the tools of fiction to tell the stories of real, live human beings and how policy, politics, and social constructs affect individuals and communities.

Why it matters

Narrative journalism offers something traditional hard news cannot: the answer not just to what happened, but what it felt like and why it matters. This human-centered approach creates connection, as readers relate to the stories of people going through similar experiences. Arocha's teachings help journalists move beyond the inverted pyramid to tell stories that preserve the sensory details, dialogue, and complexity of human response - creating documents that will resonate for decades.

The details

Arocha explains that narrative journalism "uses the tools of fiction—through setting scenes, through capturing character, use of dialogue, tension, pacing—while remaining rigorously factual." This craft is honed over decades of reporting and refined through creative writing study. Key elements include scene-setting rather than summary, following characters over time, revealing dialogue, sensory details, and an emotional and thematic arc. Narrative journalism demands in-depth, multiple-round interviews, time spent observing, document research, and rigorous fact-checking, while avoiding fabrication, embellishment, or turning real people into archetypes.

  • Arocha has been teaching journalism at the University of Texas at El Paso for 20 years.
  • Arocha published her memoir, "Guajira: The Cuba Girl", in 2024 after a 10-year writing process.

The players

Zita Arocha

A distinguished bilingual journalist, author, educator, and former executive director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ). She teaches multimedia journalism at the University of Texas at El Paso and helps a new generation of writers discover the power of narrative journalism.

Leon Dash

A reporter for The Washington Post who in the 1990s lived in a Southeast Washington, D.C., housing project for nearly a year to report on a welfare family.

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What they’re saying

“If you start making stuff up, someone is going to catch it.”

— Zita Arocha, Journalism Professor

“Freedom,' the story tells us, 'Had become impossible in the land of the free.”

— Orlando Mayorquín, New York Times Reporter

What’s next

Arocha continues to teach narrative journalism techniques to the next generation of reporters at the University of Texas at El Paso, helping them develop the skills to tell powerful, human-centered stories that go beyond traditional hard news.

The takeaway

Narrative journalism allows reporters to preserve the sensory details, dialogue, and complexity of human experience, creating stories that will resonate for decades. By using the tools of fiction while remaining rigorously factual, journalists can help readers connect with the real lives and struggles of individuals and communities affected by policy, politics, and social change.