“It’s Trauma on a Deadline”: Change, Continuity and Harm After the “Racial Reckoning”

Abstract

This article argues that, in an era of digital journalism marked by increased demands for racial and media justice, moves by Australian media institutions to employ Indigenous journalists to demonstrate their commitment to equity and diversity may place these journalists at risk of harm. This is not only because of their increased exposure to harm online, but because the burden of change is placed on these same journalists, while news organisations fail to acknowledge how race continues to structure white newsrooms. We draw on 11 interviews with practising Indigenous journalists in Australia. Following Indigenous methodologies, we work with their shared knowledge to identify a series of interconnected problems: the colonial roots of journalism and norms of white expertise; the paradox of diversity; the burden of change expected of Indigenous journalists; the racialised dynamics of microaggressions, tokenism and exploitation they experience; the traumatic nature of reporting on Indigenous affairs; and the political economy and white cultural norms embedded in news values. We suggest that there is much continuity in the racial structures of newsrooms in the era digitisation and diversity that requires a more substantial epistemological and structural shift within journalism than has thus far been enacted.