Communicating Critique: Towards a Conceptualization of Journalistic Criticism

This study explores the concept of “journalistic criticism” from theoretical and empirical perspectives. To achieve this goal the study analyzes the ways in which journalists shape representations of criticism through their coverage of events in general and especially in times of war and conflict: specifically, Israeli news media during the Second Lebanon War (July–August 2006). We present 2 models that deconstruct critical journalistic texts: The first tracks the various possible sources, contents, and objects of journalistic criticism; the second explores the different possible levels of journalistic criticism. The discussion explores the use of “reaffirming criticism” as a tool enabling journalists that cover their own national conflict to express fierce criticism as professionals, without challenging the establishment's basic assumptions.