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On social media platforms, we are bombarded with small stories, which end up in unpredictable contexts with unforeseen recipients, who actively shape the narrative and become co-authors. As an effect, the unreliable narrator – once a concept reserved for literary criticism – is everywhere. I argue for an expansion of narratological frameworks to better understand the dynamics of trust and unreliability in platformed attention economies, by looking at three domains: platforms, fiction/non-fiction hybrids, and real readers. I illustrate these through the case of the short story ‘Trainer’ (Coach, 2016) by Pim Lammers. Through my analysis of this controversy, I explore the implications of the blurred boundaries between fictional and non-fictional narratives, with particular attention to how readers attribute moral and ideological reliability to authors, narrators, and characters. This allows me to reflect on broader societal challenges around narrative competence, media literacy, and what I call ‘weaponized narrative incompetence’ – the strategic misreading of stories for rhetorical purposes.
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