Reporters for Democracy: A paradigm under construction

Karin Assmann and Andrea Lorenz. “Reporters for Democracy: A paradigm under construction,” paper accepted for presentation at the International Communication Association (ICA) conference, June 4-8, Cape Town, South Africa. Abstract: In recent years news organizations have added a new beat to their repertoires: the democracy beat. In this study we analyze the metajournalistic discourse around the creation of democracy-specific reporting, as well as interviews with 24 U.S.-based democracy reporters and editors. We explore how the role of the democracy reporter is operationalized, how journalists and editors define democracy and journalism’s role in a democracy through their work and interaction with sources and audiences. Democracy reporting, we find, is not just an exercise in paradigm repair through metajournalistic discourse, but the enactment of democracy beat reporting is an attempt to rehabilitate the normative role of journalism as watchdog and its role in a democracy. At the same time, democracy reporters and editors are negotiating how to define democracy, a surprisingly blurry concept for many, in the context of journalism. We contribute to scholarship about the evolving relationship between journalism and democracy, as well as the importance of beat structures and identities. This study provides valuable insights into changing norms and reporting practices in outlets at the local, state, and national levels at a time when journalism’s institutional role in a democratic society is being tested.