ABSTRACT
COVID-19 aggravated enduring problems in journalism, highlighted journalism’s important and evolving social roles, and posed challenges to journalistic norms and routines. COVID-19 became a pivotal moment for journalists around the world, a critical incident that spotlighted journalistic rules, roles, and routines. Considering journalism as an interpretive community asks us to conceptualize journalism as a field bound by commonality and “united through [a] shared discourse and collective interpretations of key public events”. A critical incident refers to an event or development that leads journalists to reconsider “the hows and whys of journalistic practice”. Metajournalistic discourse is intertwined with critical incidents in that once an incident is deemed “critical,” whether by a journalist or actor outside journalism and whether immediately or in retrospect, it is constructed and shaped in metajournalistic discourse as members of the interpretive community negotiate meanings and legitimize their authoritative roles. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
