Through a lens of boundary work and role conception, this study seeks to understand how political journalists discursively construct the role of the newspaper editorial endorsement. Researchers conducted long-form interviews with political journalists in the United States ( n = 64) to understand how journalists conducted boundary work relative to endorsements. Journalists argued that the 2016 election was a decisive event in which political news endorsements lost their original objective. Political journalists described laboring to discursively distance themselves from the endorsement process and viewed political endorsements not only as ineffective, but also as jeopardizing their news organizations’ independence.

This study conducts a meta-analysis of journalism studies research of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through an analysis of research published during the early stages of the pandemic (n=21) in Tier 1 and Tier 2 Communication journals, the study synthesizes extant findings to reflect the role of the pandemic on journalists financially, emotionally, and practically, the role of the pandemic on journalistic audiences and finally, the central mediating role of social media during the pandemic. Through the lens of field theory, these findings reflect both the adaptable nature of the journalistic field--adaptability that allows journalism to be, at times, unstable but also allow for resourceful adaptation in the face of tragedy.