The colour-line of journalism

Exploring racism as a boundary object in journalistic practice and principles

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/journalistica.v15i1.124927

Keywords:

Boundary work, Discourse analysis, Journalism, Race, Racism, Minority voices

Abstract

This article argues that Danish journalistic boundary producing practices and principles uphold a representation of racial disparity. Based on critical theories of race and racism in journalism and a boundary work framework, we conduct a discursive analysis of two collective case studies that encompass 56 articles and 23 Facebook posts. Focusing mainly on 1) the construction of knowledge about potential racism, 2) who are positioned as authorities on the topic of racism, and 3) who are missing among the potential actors in the stories, we identify meta-journalistic discourses and the (re)establishment of journalistic principles and practices. We conclude that journalistic norms and practices, for now, withstand the challenges posed by minority media’s call for the recognition of race as structure by applying discursive strategies of firstly rejecting racism as structure and secondly asserting principles and practices of specific kinds of objectivity, utilising, for instance, elite sources.

Author Biographies

Camilla Dindler, Aalborg University

Camilla Dindler is Associate Professor of Communications at Aalborg University, Copenhagen. She has practised and studied journalism extensively and published on the topics of journalism practices and health communication. 

Bolette B. Blaagaard, Aalborg University

Bolette B. Blaagaard is Associate Professor of Communication at Aalborg University, Copenhagen. She has worked extensively on the topic of citizen journalism and citizen media, including in the publications Citizen Journalism as Conceptual Practice (Rowman & Littlefield 2018), Citizen Media and Public Spaces (Routledge 2016) co-edited with Mona Baker and The Routledge Encyclopedia of Citizen Media (Routledge 2020) co-edited with Mona Baker, Henry Jones, Luis Pérez-González. She is also the co-editor of the Routledge book series Critical Perspectives on Citizen Media.  

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Published

2021-12-02

How to Cite

Dindler, C., & Blaagaard, B. B. (2021). The colour-line of journalism: Exploring racism as a boundary object in journalistic practice and principles. Journalistica, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.7146/journalistica.v15i1.124927

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 1 (2021): Journalism on the edge

Section

Special Issue: Journalism on the edge

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Camilla Dindler, Bolette B. Blaagaard

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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