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Access Type
WSU Access
Date of Award
January 2024
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Department
Communication
First Advisor
Fred Vultee
Abstract
It is problematic to expect that professionals uniformly approach journalism or its daily routine of social media engagement. The events of Summer 2020 centered this issue for Black journalists as protests erupted around the world in protests against police brutality in the United States. This contentious time charted a path for research to explore what steers the decision-making of Black journalists considering participating in conversations on social media about those protests and their contiguous matters, such as race, politics, social justice, and gender. As disputes about social media policies continue to arise between news organizations and the Black journalists they employ, this research explores how they navigate occupying the spaces of race and profession.
Drawing on 31 in-depth interviews with Black journalists working in or near large U.S. cities, this project used co-cultural theory, the professional identity and ideology of journalists, and ventriloquism theory to understand what journalists consider when contemplating engaging in social media conversations about contentious topics. Participants described 11 social media posting strategies: yielding, avoidance, circumspection, moxie, grouping, strategic inquisition, modification, veiling, suppression, compliance, and expungement.
Black journalists invoked these strategies for various reasons, including holding space for marginalized voices; safeguarding their employment; demonstrating their right to post as an individual based on experience; leaning on plausible deniability when necessary; witnessing conversations taking place online without taking up the risks that come with participating in them; abiding by implicit and explicit rules of news organizations and the wider journalism industry; and avoiding the social media spotlight.
Recommended Citation
Perry, Erin, "A Phenomenological Study Of Black Journalists’ Communication Strategies When Posting About Contentious News Topics On Social Media" (2024). Wayne State University Dissertations. 4000.
https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations/4000
