A Mirror of the Times

A history of the mirror metaphor in journalism

Bibliographic Data

ID7511274
AuthorsTim P Vos (0000-0002-7174-5574, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume12
Issue5
Pages575-589
Publication date2011-01-06
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournalism Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1461-670X • E-ISSN: 1469-9699
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1461670x.2010.536449
OpenAlexW1508514158
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited11

This is a cultural history of how the mirror was invoked as a metaphor for newspapers and journalism during parts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the United States. This study examines how journalists' own discourse invoked the mirror as a metaphor and how this discourse related to the broader cultural understanding about the nature of mirrors. Three main meanings emerged—the mirror as means for self-reflection and moral judgment, the mirror as reliable reflection of events, and the mirror as reflection of the nature of a newspaper's readership or market. Keywords: historymetaphormirrorobjectivityoccupational norm

Aesthetics · Art · Audience measurement · Journalism · Linguistics · Media studies · Metaphor · Mirror image · Newspaper · Optics · Physics · Political science · Reflection (computer programming · Sociology · Computer Science · Literature, Film, and Journalism Analysis · Media Studies and Communication · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · Law · Philosophy

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