From ‘imagined audience’ to ‘imagined people’: The American Jewish press post-October 7 th

Abstract

Since October 7^th 2023, American Jews have experienced a sense of unease and alienation cutting across generations, within families, among friends, and throughout communities. This article examines this tension among American Jews from the perspective of the journalists who cover them to understand the ways that community journalists articulate peoplehood, identity, and professionalism against the backdrop of trauma. Drawing on 14 in-depth interviews with journalists and editors who contribute to or work for news organizations focused on the American Jewish audience, I find that, since the October 7^th attacks, journalists for the American Jewish press have been thinking about their audience in deeply personal ways, causing them to shift their audience perceptions from ways that privilege audience preferences to ways that privilege audience emotions. Building off Litt’s theory of the “imagined audience,” I argue that these findings reveal what I refer to as journalism’s “imagined people,” which I define as the ways journalists conceptualize members of the communities that journalists not only seek to cover but also belong to themselves. I conclude by exploring the implications of these findings for journalism’s role in helping groups of people to move beyond political and cultural traumas.