Talking Back: Journalists Defending Attacks Against their Profession in the Trump Era

Koliska, Michael; Chadha, Kalyani; Burns, Alison

doi:10.1080/1461670x.2020.1763190

Cited by 37 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…The projectory discourse, activated by these delegitimization attempts, reconstructs journalism's moral role to overcome contemporary socio-political challenges. While Trump's legitimacy attacks indicate an erosion of intentional trust, his attacks may have accelerated searching solutions within journalism to restore trust, as argued in Koliska, Chadha, and Burns (2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Gills, Patomäki, and Morgan (2019, 291) argue that "Trump's words, actions and inactions are potentially deeply damaging to the legitimacy of the office he holds and to the continuity of the institutions defining that position. " Severely challenging journalism's legitimacy, Trump's fake news accusations cause struggle over journalism's role in society and intensify the need to renegotiate legitimacy in society (Koliska, Chadha, and Burns 2020). Trump's accusations attack trust in news organizations' good intentions which implies opportunism (Korkeamäki and Kohtamäki 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous research focused on the analysis of news content and social media discussions as locus for re-legitimization in the Trump era (Koliska, Chadha, and Burns 2020;Carlson, Robinson, and Lewis 2020;Whipple and Shermak 2020;Egelhofer et al 2020;Lischka 2019). The goal of this explorative study is to understand how journalism as an organizational field collectively reconstructs legitimacy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fighting an indestructible monster

Lischka

2021

JLP

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U.S. journalism during the Trump era has experienced numerous legitimacy attacks by the leading political figure. Building on the concepts of institutional legitimacy and intentional trust, this study analyzes legitimation narratives in projections of journalism’s future, using the Harvard University’s NiemanLab Predictions of Journalism from 2017 to 2021. Projectory narratives are meaningful constructions of a field’s future and provide guidance for its actors. The qualitative analysis of a Trump-related subset of predictions (ca. n = 130) convey (1) confrontational narratives of threat, self-reproach, and epistemological authority loss. Confrontational narratives serve to secure consent for suggested transparency and audience relationship building solutions. These (2) solution narratives represent trustification strategies. Lastly, (3) survival narratives aim at regaining authority and agency through legacy mythopoesis and the construction of a cautiously optimistic post-Trump outlook for journalism. Hence, the analysis of projectory narratives reveals how an organizational field collectively prepares for change to regain legitimacy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fighting an indestructible monster

Lischka

2021

JLP

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“…There, the issue has been raised particularly by socially and politically conservative groups, accusing the media of a liberal bias that systematically disfavours conservative actors and views (Domke et al 1999;Major 2015). With the growth in strongly partisan cable networks and online media amplifying political attacks against the "liberal media" over the past decade or so, this scepticism has been reflected in the decline of trust in the mainstream media among conservative audiences (Koliska, Chadha, and Burns 2020). Notably, similar accusations have become increasingly familiar in many other Western countries with the rise of new national conservative parties and movements (e.g., Aalberg et al 2018;Eatwell and Goodwin 2018).…”

Section: Journalistic Neutrality and Audience Trust In The Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Is the Age of Impartial Journalism Over? The Neutrality Principle and Audience (Dis)trust in Mainstream News

Ojala

2021

Journalism Studies

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This exploratory study addresses the relationship between audience trust in the news media and the ideal of neutrality in journalism. It starts from the premise that, at a time when national conservatism is on the rise as a political movement in Western societies, journalism is less and less recognised as a neutral actor in politics. Therefore, efforts to present itself as such may be damaging journalism's credibility and trustworthiness among its publics. The article examines this premise on the basis of a representative survey of Finnish media audiences and three focus group interviews, asking how Finns' expressed trust or distrust of the mainstream news media is connected to their perceptions about journalism's neutrality and impartiality-or lack thereof-in political debate. The findings indicate that while the large majority of Finnish audiences express trust in the mainstream news media, they are divided when it comes to their level of confidence in journalism's neutrality. Moreover, both trust and perceptions of neutrality are strongly associated with audiences' political outlook. We conclude that audience distrust of the media mainly reflects the difficulties that mainstream journalism faces in giving an equal voice to all political groups and views at a time of heightened ideological contestation.

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“…When examining how American journalists defend themselves against Trump's attacks, Koliska et al (2020) drew on content analysis to conclude that journalists defend "the institutional myth" of journalism by emphasizing ideals like objectivity and even-handedness. Drawing on interviews with German news editors, Koliska and Assmann (2019) indicated that populist attacks on the media have led journalists to place increased emphasis on professional norms and practices, as well as improve their dialogue with their audience.…”

Section: Balance Bias and Journalists' Response To The Populist Critiquementioning

confidence: 99%

The Strategic Bias: How Journalists Respond to Antimedia Populism

Panievsky

2021

The International Journal of Press/Politics

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As populist campaigns against the media become increasingly common around the world, it is ever more urgent to explore how journalists adopt and respond to them. Which strategies have journalists developed to maintain the public's trust, and what may be the implications for democracy? These questions are addressed using a thematic analysis of forty-five semistructured interviews with leading Israeli journalists who have been publicly targeted by Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The article suggests that while most interviewees asserted that adherence to objective reporting was the best response to antimedia populism, many of them have in fact applied a “strategic bias” to their reporting, intentionally leaning to the Right in an attempt to refute the accusations of media bias to the Left. This strategy was shaped by interviewees' perceived helplessness versus Israel's Prime Minister and his extensive use of social media, a phenomenon called here “the influence of presumed media impotence.” Finally, this article points at the potential ramifications of strategic bias for journalism and democracy. Drawing on Hallin's Spheres theory, it claims that the strategic bias might advance Right-wing populism at present, while also narrowing the sphere of legitimate controversy—thus further restricting press freedom—in the future.

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Talking Back: Journalists Defending Attacks Against their Profession in the Trump Era

Cited by 37 publications

References 34 publications

Fighting an indestructible monster

Fighting an indestructible monster

Is the Age of Impartial Journalism Over? The Neutrality Principle and Audience (Dis)trust in Mainstream News

The Strategic Bias: How Journalists Respond to Antimedia Populism

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