A historical event must become a story before it can be communicated.

Evidence

The raw historical event cannot in that form be transmitted by, say, a television newscast. It can only be signified within the aural-visual forms of the televisual language. In the moment when the historical event passes under the sign of language, it is subject to all the complex formal “rules” by which language signifies. To put it paradoxically, the event must become a “story” before it can become a communicative event. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 784

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘event must become a story’ formulation anticipates narrative mediatization debates and connects to work on how news framing shapes what audiences can know. — connects to: Historical reality is messier than fiction yet follows its essential plot. — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 262