Challenging journalistic objectivity: How journalists of color call for a reckoning

• Published in: Journalism (London, England) Vol. 25; no. 3; pp. 547 - 564
• Main Author: Schmidt, Thomas R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.03.2024
• Subjects: professionalism; racism; social justice; Objectivity; journalistic norms; discourse analysis
• ISSN: 1464-8849; 1741-3001
• DOI: 10.1177/14648849231160997

This study explores how journalists in the United States advocated for a stronger affirmation of social justice in journalism following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Analyzing the metajournalistic discourse in trade publications (Niemanlab, Columbia Journalism Review, Poynter) and on the web, this study traces how journalists and commentators challenged the professional norm of journalistic objectivity. In particular, it examines how journalistic objectivity became identified as a problematic concept, what journalists were suggesting as its alternative, and how the journalistic establishment responded. This study identifies three dimensions of criticisms and connects these to disagreements within specific modalities of journalistic objectivity (procedural, ethical, ideological). Ultimately, this analysis locates an ideological struggle in which fundamental moral norms of journalism are not only being vigorously contested but also rearticulated and renegotiated.