Journalists as interpretive communities

TLDR

The article argues that the concept of “profession” is insufficient for understanding community among American journalists. It proposes treating journalists as an interpretive community united by shared discourse and collective interpretations of key public events. The author applies this interpretive community framework to journalistic discourse on Watergate and McCarthyism. Journalists create shared interpretations of Watergate and McCarthyism by simultaneously viewing events as they happen and as they are later recounted, demonstrating that they routinely produce collective meaning through practices beyond the professional frame and underscoring the need for alternative conceptualizations of journalism.

Abstract

This article suggests that the notion of “profession” may not offer the most fruitful way of examining community among American journalists. It proposes viewing journalists as members of an interpretive community instead, one united by its shared discourse and collective interpretations of key public events. The article applies the frame of the interpretive community to journalistic discourse about two events central for American journalists—Watergate and McCarthyism. Journalists have generated collective interpretations of both events by capitalizing on the double temporal position they occupy in regard to them. This situation of “doing double time” allows journalists to interpret an event at the time of its unfolding as well as at the time of its retelling. This suggests that journalists routinely generate shared meaning about journalism by capitalizing on practices overlooked by the frame of the profession, and underscores the need for alternative frames through which to conceptualize journalism in all its complexities.