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

Abstract

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.