Paradigm Repair and News Engagement
Exploring Bari Weiss’s Resignation from the New York Times
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12909476 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Cheng Zeng (0000-0001-8799-6696, North Dakota State University, corresponding author), Shuning Lu (0000-0001-8259-7987, North Dakota State University) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 7 |
| Pages | 1830-1847 |
| Publication date | 2022-09-05 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journalism Practice (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1751-2786 • E-ISSN: 1751-2794 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17512786.2022.2118153 |
| OpenAlex | W4294680879 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 36 |
In July 2020, New York Times Opinion staff and writer Bari Weiss announced her resignation, accusing the newspaper’s problematic editorial preference. Her resignation ignited robust debates about professional norms and journalistic accountability among journalists, partisan elites, and the public. Drawing on insights from ethical crisis communication, journalistic paradigm repair, and schema congruity theory, this study used this case as a point of departure and examined the effects of NYT response to and politician endorsement of Weiss’s resignation on news audiences’ perceptions and subsequent behaviors. Based on a 3 (NYT response: acceptance, denial, silence) by 2 (partisan endorsement: left-leaning vs right-leaning) between-subject experiment (N = 251) in the United States, we found that NYT’s accepting response induced higher ratings of journalistic accountability of NYT, which in turn led to greater intentions to engage with the outlet. Endorsement from the right-leaning partisan elites resulted in lower perceptions of Weiss’s ethics, but higher levels of news engagement. Further, there was an indirect effect of partisan endorsement on news engagement intentions through perceived ethics. We discussed our findings regarding how news organizations could uphold their core values and meet their business goals during reputational crises at times of low media trust and heightened political polarization
Accountability · Aesthetics · Denial · Media studies · News media · News values · Newspaper · Perception · Polarization (electrochemistry · Political science · Politics · Silence · Sociology · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Psychology · Public Relations and Crisis Communication · Social Psychology
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| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |