Negative Memory Mobilization: Moments of Journalistic Failure as an Interpretive Lens

Abstract

ABSTRACT While ample scholarly attention has focused on how, through commemorative journalism during anniversaries, deaths or retirement, the journalistic community mobilize past accomplishments to bolster their cultural authority, very limited attention has been paid to how the journalistic community can mobilize negative memories in dealing with problematic situations that are similar to past journalistic scandals or shortcomings. Examining how financial journalists made sense of accusations that they missed the 2008 Global Financial Crisis story, this study analyzes how the journalistic community makes use of past shortcomings to negotiate its understanding of a new case from its breaking moment to its anniversary a decade later. The study finds that reporters relied on previous moments’ incidents to explain and contextualize the Global Financial Crisis coverage as another missed story and use it as an opportunity to restate how they should refine their practice going forward.