Paradigm Repair and Journalistic Metadiscourse

Journalists’ representation of press bad behaviour is often characterised by certain paradigm repair strategies. The notion of paradigm repair relates to efforts by the press to protect news paradigms rather than critically examining them to see if there is a need for change (Bennet et al. 1985, cited in Carlson, Metajournalistic discourse and the meanings of journalism: Definitional control, boundary work, and legitimation. Communication Theory, 26(4), 349–368, 2015, p. 4). This chapter shows how the paradigm repair strategies of “threat to the paradigm” (warnings of attacks on journalism) and “historicisation” (using history to protect journalistic paradigms) were used to argue against efforts at reforming media policy. The author takes the position that media reform efforts are weakened, to a large extent, by the way the media cover debates about their policy. She argues that understanding the strategies used by the media to protect journalistic paradigms will help the public digest the coverage of media policy intelligently and push for healthy and effective media reform.