Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word: Reinforcing Institutional Identities through Newspaper Apologies for Racist Past

ABSTRACT

Following the early twenty-first Century’s “age of apologies,” news organizations have been among the institutions apologizing for their historical role in promoting racist rhetoric by directly addressing their inherent racialized biases. Guided by literature on organizational and racial apologia bolstered by the theory of “institutional myth”, this study analyzes 13 apologies published by 12 media organizations to understand how they are performing and communicating reparative actions towards communities of color. Despite their long role in promoting harmful stereotypes and in some cases a complete erasure of narrative from communities of color, news organizations presented “surface-level” apologies that paved the initial path to reconciliation. However, these organizations vigorously defend and uphold the institutional myth of established journalism norms and practices that have been instrumental in their failures, which have led to these apologies. We argue that the reparative work of journalism needs to start by creating an inclusive journalistic paradigm that centers on the ideologies and voices of all groups within our society.

KEYWORDS:

• Newspaper apology
• reparative journalism
• institutional myth
• journalism history
• racial apologia
• organizational apology

Disclosure Statement

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