Erasing the Past: Untangling the Conflicting Journalistic Loyalties and Paradigmatic Pressures of Unpublishing

Abstract

Unpublishing, or the act of deleting previously published media content from a news outlet’s online archive in response to an external request, is a growing ethical and practical dilemma for journalists. Adjudicating unpublishing requests leaves each media outlet to wrestle with balancing the ethical tenets of accuracy and objectivity. Amid a substantial rise in scholarly attention to technological challenges associated with digital privacy, research specific to unpublishing is limited and less focused on the ethical foundations from which professional practices might be developed. This study used qualitative interviews with editorial decisionmakers at print, television, and radio news outlets to explore the challenges unpublishing pose to journalists’ work. Results show a struggle to balance competing loyalties to the individuals requesting content to be removed and two fundamental paradigmatic assumptions. Findings identify new complexities to the media-audience relationship and call for refocusing attention toward resolving how unpublishing decisions fit within the journalistic paradigm before tenable newsroom practices can take root.