When Journalism Goes Mute

• In Event: The Ambivalence of Voice

Abstract

This presentation considers what happens to journalism’s voice in digital spaces. Seen as a combination of indicative and subjunctive impulses that ride on journalism’s words and images, journalism’s voice changes as it accommodates the digital environment, morphing from one voice, many sounds into a cacophony of many voices, one sound. That one sound—a mix of discordant, often meaningless utterances collapsed into one entity by an overly-energetic but facile orientation to speed—mutes the authority of all those who try to speak. This makes a more nuanced embrace of temporality an important offset for understanding the news, one that pushes beyond speed to grapple with journalism’s complicated temporality in the digital environment. The presentation illustrates the fuller role time might play in highlighting journalism’s voice in digital spaces by reflecting on aspects of US journalism’s coverage of Trump.

Author

• Barbie Zelizer, U of Pennsylvania