Journalism’s Change Agents: Black Lives Matter, #BlackoutTuesday, and a Shift Toward Activist Doxa

Based on interviews with journalists during the 2020 racial justice protests, this study uses field theory and doxa to explore to what extent journalists who cover social justice issues are redrawing the boundary between journalism and activism. I use #BlackoutTuesday and journalists’ discourse abou...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournalism & mass communication quarterly Vol. 99; no. 3; pp. 742 - 762
Main Author Harlow, Summer
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.09.2022
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Black Lives Matter movement
Change agents
Journalism
Journalists
Objectivity
Racial justice
Social justice
Social media
race
protest
social media
field theory
activism
journalism
objectivity
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Summary:Based on interviews with journalists during the 2020 racial justice protests, this study uses field theory and doxa to explore to what extent journalists who cover social justice issues are redrawing the boundary between journalism and activism. I use #BlackoutTuesday and journalists’ discourse about posting black squares on Instagram in support of #BlackLivesMatter to examine social media’s role in evolving perceptions about objectivity and stance-taking. Journalists saw social media as creating an opening for objectivity to move from an orthodox value to a debatable heterodox one. I argue these journalists acted as change agents, reforming the journalist field from within.
ISSN:1077-6990
2161-430X
DOI:10.1177/10776990221108648