Abstract
Rolling Stone ignited a debate in July 2013 when it published a cover featuring alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The online version of the cover story drew comments expressing criticism and support of the cover. A qualitative analysis of comments posted within the first week of the cover story shed light on the image's institutional meaning for Rolling Stone and cultural meaning for readers. Assessing this cover as a critical incident, this study shows how readers, through their comments, participated in the ongoing boundary work in the journalistic field, joining journalism's interpretive community in defining professional roles, norms, and routines.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 281-297 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | Journalism |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 Mar 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© SAGE Publications.
Keywords
- Boundary work
- Rolling Stone
- interpretive communities
- online comments
- symbolic contests