Challenging presentism in journalism studies: An emotional life history approach to understanding the lived experience of journalists

Abstract

This article argues that studying the emotional life histories of journalists will help us better understand the profound changes and challenges facing the profession. The article suggests that the field has been marked by ‘presentism’ and requires new tools and vocabularies for studying how transformations in journalism have shaped journalists as individuals and journalism as a professional identity over the longer term. It proposes that an emphasis on emotional life histories allows us to think differently about the big and recurring debates in the field by, (1) offering us a way of seeing historical transformations from the bottom up, on the basis of lived and embodied experience and (2) providing a vocabulary and a method for explaining changes in journalistic professionalism, practices, and self-understanding – including journalistic norms, role perceptions, identities, and news values.