Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2021
Keywords
Media Ecology, Metajournalistic Discourse, Coronavirus, Crisis Communication, COVID-19 Communication Ecology
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764221992813
Abstract
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, journalists have the challenging task of gathering and distributing accurate information. Journalists exist as a part of an ecology in which their work influences and is influenced by the environment that surrounds it. Using the framework of disaster communication ecology, this study explores the discursive construction of journalism during the COVID-19 crisis. To understand this process in the field of journalism, we unpacked discourses concerning the coronavirus pandemic collected from interviews with journalists during the pandemic and from the U.S. journalism trade press using the Discourses of Journalism Database. Through discourse analysis, we discovered that during COVID-19 journalists discursively placed themselves in a responsible but vulnerable position within the communication ecology—not solely as a result of the pandemic but also from environmental conditions that long preceded it. Journalists found their reporting difficult during the pandemic and sought to mitigate the forces challenging their work as they sought to reverse the flow of misinformation.
Rights Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
No
Citation / Publisher Attribution
American Behavioral Scientist, v. 65, issue 7, p. 976-991
Scholar Commons Citation
Perreault, Mildred F. and Perreault, Gregory P., "Journalists on COVID-19 Journalism: Communication Ecology of Pandemic Reporting" (2021). School of Advertising & Mass Communications Faculty Publications. 45.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/com_facpub/45
