It’s a common style in certain pieces of journalism. It’s predicated on the idea that people both enjoy and connect more deeply to narrative and concrete detail

It’s a common style in certain pieces of journalism. It’s predicated on the idea that people both enjoy and connect more deeply to narrative and concrete detail. I’m with you—I find that the style is frequently overused these days and really annoying when all I want out of the article is some basic information/reportage. It’s used to fantastic effect in things like expose peieces, or deep explorations of pervasive issues that have a rich history, but more often than not, journalists feel like they have to whip it out for every little nugget of news when straightforward, sober reportage would suffice.