Under Construction: Democracy Reporting as Paradigm Repair

Karin Assmann and Lorenz, A. (2026) “Under Construction: Democracy Reporting as Paradigm Repair,” Journalism Studies, https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2026.2719576

Abstract: In recent years, several news organizations in the United States have added a new beat to their newsrooms: the democracy beat. In this study, we analyze the metajournalistic discourse about the creation of teams tasked with democracy-specific reporting. We contribute to scholarship about the relationship between democracy and journalism at a time when both are under duress. The creation of democracy beats, we find, is a critique of political reporting as usual and an exercise in both paradigm repair and paradigm renewal. News outlets are trying to rehabilitate the normative role of journalists as watchdogs and defenders of democracy. Democracy desks are expected to adopt a more adversarial approach and critical standpoint as they challenge the objectivity paradigm. This study provides valuable insights into the institutional response of U.S. news organizations at the local, state, and national levels to attacks on the free press and to the escalating anti-media rhetoric putting journalism’s institutional role in a democratic society to the test.