Emotions in Metajournalistic Discourse: Discussing the Emotional Dimensions of Journalism in Belarus, Germany, India, Ukraine, and the United States

The “emotional turn” in journalism studies has demonstrated the ubiquity of emotions in journalism practice, in news content, and in the relationship between journalists and their audiences. Because journalism’s institutional and public standing rests on professional values such as facticity, impartiality, and transparency, exploring metajournalistic discourses about emotions can illuminate how journalistic actors legitimize or delegitimize the role of emotions in journalistic practice. Based on an analysis of metajournalistic discourses (N = 107) in 5 countries—the United States, India, Germany, Ukraine, and Belarus—we find that metajournalistic discourses across diverse national cultures “authorize” journalists to empathize with sources experiencing hardship but rarely address the potential of emotions to build trust among wider audiences and their role in journalistic epistemology.