The Labor of Building Trust: Traditional and Engagement Discourses for Practicing Journalism in a Digital Age

• Published in: Journalism & mass communication quarterly Vol. 98; no. 4; pp. 1041 - 1058
• Main Authors: Zahay, Megan L., Jensen, Kelly, Xia, Yiping, Robinson, Sue
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-12-2021; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Democracy; Discourses; Journalism; Journalists; Mass media; News media; Rhetoric; Social media; Specialists; Websites; trust; engagement; rhetoric; social media; deliberation; journalism; labor
• ISSN: 1077-6990; 2161-430X
• DOI: 10.1177/1077699020954854

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.”