Covering a Complicated Legacy with a Sledgehammer: Metajournalistic and Audience Discourse After Kobe Bryant’s Death

ABSTRACT

This research analyzes journalists’ and audiences’ responses to a critical incident: the coverage of Kobe Bryant’s death, including whether it included accusations against Bryant, and of the Washington Post’s brief suspension of reporter Felicia Sonmez, who, at his death, retweeted an old storey about rape charges filed against Bryant. Findings are that journalists focused on the complexity of Bryant’s legacy and emphasized the journalistic values of professionalism and truth. Moreover, while journalists engaged in some boundary setting, this research suggests the value of seeing audiences as press critics not unlike professional journalists. Audiences acknowledged and endorsed journalistic principles but noted the importance of social norms; their expectations for good journalism suggest ways to rebuild trust in journalism.

KEYWORDS:

• Kobe Bryant
• metajournalistic discourse
• audiences
• boundary work
• paradigm repair
• journalism ethics

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Journalistic and audience responses to the earlier ban and Sonmez’s later lawsuit are beyond the scope of this research.

2 Among the many to mock the slogan, Dean Baquet, then the New York Times executive editor said it "sounds like the next Batman movie" (Savransky 2017).