Competing for Cultural Authority: Journalism Studies Must Account for the Right

Abstract

Recent technological and political developments have caused researchers to reevaluate journalists’ relevance vis a vis other forms of media production, with some calling for a “decentering” of journalism within broader media cultures. While there has been sizeable growth in research concerning the impacts of new digital technologies on journalism, we call for a renewed focus on partisan media. We contend that the future of journalism studies necessarily involves a reckoning with right-wing news cultures and note four areas where further research is especially necessary: including theorizing how conservative news influences and its epistemological assumptions, as well as right-wing media’s increasing salience across a diverse array of communities in the U.S. and across the globe. We intend this essay as a provocation to journalism studies scholars, with the goal of effecting a robust and reflexive subfield devoted to the study of right-wing news.