Competence on Display: Crafting Stories during Newsroom Editorial Conferences

Abstract

How do journalists project an attitude of fairness and balance, not only in the interviews they conduct, or in the front page article they write, but also, often fleetingly, in interaction? How do they come across as knowledgeable, accurate, gritty, investigative reporters, not only frontstage, in the public conversation with their readers/viewers, but also backstage, in the private realm of a meeting room, interacting with their peers? In this chapter we explore these questions, relying on an ethnographic, linguistically sensitive approach to journalists’ talk during editorial meetings.