TY - JOUR
T1 - Gone, But Not Forgotten
T2 - Memories of journalistic deviance as metajournalistic discourse
AU - Carlson, Matt
PY - 2014/1/1
Y1 - 2014/1/1
N2 - Much has been written about how the journalistic community relies on the collective memory of past accomplishments to bolster its cultural authority. Similarly, researchers have analyzed how journalists react to accusations of professional deviancy within their ranks to mitigate the damage to their overall standing. This study fills a gap where these two areas of research intersect by analyzing how journalists reinvigorate memories of past misconduct through engaging new occurrences. By examining metajournalistic discourse surrounding offenders, this study examines how incidents of deviance become embedded as particular symbols in the collective understanding of journalism. The analysis tracks the memory of six prominent cases of journalistic misconduct in the United States to demonstrate how the journalistic community turns to past episodes of professional deviancy to make sense of itself in the face of emerging tensions. These findings suggest the need to broaden an understanding of collective memory to include negative memories.
AB - Much has been written about how the journalistic community relies on the collective memory of past accomplishments to bolster its cultural authority. Similarly, researchers have analyzed how journalists react to accusations of professional deviancy within their ranks to mitigate the damage to their overall standing. This study fills a gap where these two areas of research intersect by analyzing how journalists reinvigorate memories of past misconduct through engaging new occurrences. By examining metajournalistic discourse surrounding offenders, this study examines how incidents of deviance become embedded as particular symbols in the collective understanding of journalism. The analysis tracks the memory of six prominent cases of journalistic misconduct in the United States to demonstrate how the journalistic community turns to past episodes of professional deviancy to make sense of itself in the face of emerging tensions. These findings suggest the need to broaden an understanding of collective memory to include negative memories.
KW - collective memory
KW - deviance
KW - journalistic authority
KW - metajournalistic discourse
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84889261419&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84889261419&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/1461670X.2013.790620
DO - 10.1080/1461670X.2013.790620
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84889261419
SN - 1461-670X
VL - 15
SP - 33
EP - 47
JO - Journalism Studies
JF - Journalism Studies
IS - 1
ER -