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Matthew C. Ehrlich
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Sammye Johnson
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University of Southern California
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University of Southern California
Richard Ness
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Joe Saltzman
University of Southern California
Editorial Board
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University of Maryland
Bonnie Brennen
Marquette University
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Middle Tennessee State University
Mary-Lou Galician
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SUNY, New Paltz
Norma Fay Green
Columbia College, Chicago
Radhika Parameswaran
Indiana University
Karen Miller Russell
University of Georgia
Barbie Zelizer
University of Pennsylvania

University of Southern California

The IJPC Journal, Volumes 11 and 12 - Fall 2023 - Spring 2026

The Image of Black Western Journalists in Novels: Fact or Fiction?

Omega Douglas

Abstract


The DEI backlash in the United States and the United Kingdom is harming journalism, which is already in crisis. News organizations are not fulfilling their ethical requirement to reflect society via the content they produce, nor the people who produce it. Those bearing the brunt of these failures are Black women, who are among the most underrepresented groups in editorial roles in US and UK newsrooms. A lack of diversity in journalism, racial or otherwise, contributes to the worsening democratic deficit, as audiences receive skewed or inaccurate views of their country and the world. This paper argues that fictionalized accounts of Black women journalists, written by Black women authors who have lived experience of the British and US journalistic fields, offer important insight into frequently overlooked perspectives. In doing so, this paper centers the importance of popular culture to challenge power in ways ‘mainstream’ Western news outlets are largely failing to do.

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