What’s in a Name? Journalistic Boundary Work and a High School Newspaper’s Effort to Ban “Redskin”

Abstract

A Pennsylvania high school newspaper published an editorial in Fall 2013 announcing its decision to cease using the name of the school’s sports teams, Redskins. That decision prompted the local school board to institute a policy giving administrators more editorial control over the newspaper. The controversy resonated with U.S. professional journalists, who followed it as it developed. Using the theoretical framework of journalistic boundary work, this qualitative textual analysis of 94 news articles identifies three main responses: references to professionalism, praise for sound practices, and highlighting the students’ free press rights.