The Labor of Building Trust: Traditional and Engagement Discourses for Practicing Journalism in a Digital Age. (December 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zahay, Megan L.; Jensen, Kelly; Xia, Yiping; Robinson, Sue
• Is Part Of: Journalism & mass communication quarterly. Volume 98:Number 4(2021)
• Page Start: 1041
• Page End: 1058
• Publication Date: 2021-12
• Subjects: deliberation -- journalism -- labor -- trust -- engagement -- social media -- rhetoric; Journalism -- Periodicals; Mass media -- Periodicals; Communication -- Periodicals; Journalism -- United States -- Periodicals; Journalism -- Bibliography -- Periodicals; 070
• DOI: 10.1177/1077699020954854
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1077-6990

Abstract

This work of rhetorical analysis interrogates the understanding of journalism as a deliberative instrument in democracy. With 42 in-depth interviews and hundreds of pages of text from websites, social media, and trade press articles, we find a major shift occurring in the United States between more traditional reporters and a growing class often calling themselves "engagement specialists." These engagement-oriented journalists assert a responsibility to relationally engage with citizens in person and online, making space for them in the news production process. These emerging routines of trust-building are informing a new rhetoric around what it means to "do journalism."