The Conscience of the Arkansas Gazette

Ink in their veins? Distorting archetypes, family newspapers, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“…Consequently, it is necessary to not only identify the ways the family newspaper archetype is upheld but also the moments where it becomes unraveled, exposing the limits of its own construction. As opposed to analyzing family-owned newspapers after being sold (e.g., Ghiglione, 1984; Stephens, 2015) or as biographic histories (e.g., Thomas, 2005; Tifft and Jones, 1999), interrogating moments of upheaval while still under family ownership presents an alternative access point to this archetype. Moreover, such disruptions not only lay bare the values and logics of family ownership, but they also reveal the deeper flaws of the system journalism inhabits.…”