#callfor Hidden, Yet Pervasive: Social Inequality in Journalism (Research) (Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly)

Social inequality is typically understood as the unequal distribution of (economic)
resources, power, and prestige within society, where conditions of high inequality grant
privileges, opportunities, and rewards to individuals in certain positions while denying
them to others (Ballantine et al., 2019). Forms of social inequality are growing globally
(e.g., Piketty, 2014) and lie at the heart of many burning problems of our time, ranging
from political polarization over climate change to the societal impact of generative AI. The
2024 Human Development Report by the United Nations identifies social inequalities as
a key to addressing today’s grand challenges. In a deeply mediatized world, public
discourses around social inequality are pivotal to how these challenges develop and
unfold—positioning journalism research at the forefront of their analysis. While
journalism research has a rich tradition of examining certain forms of inequality (e.g.,
gender inequality; see Steiner, 2012), some forms remain underexplored (e.g., class
inequality; see Usher, 2021), and others are largely neglected in our field (e.g., wealth
inequality, environmental inequality, rural-urban divides).
Against this backdrop, the special issue aims to stimulate critical reflection on
what and how journalism scholarship can contribute to understanding the complex
dynamics around social inequality in contemporary societies. Specifically, we invite
works that focus on those dimensions of social inequality and journalism that have
received limited scholarly attention. We welcome contributions that foster a more
holistic understanding of social inequality as a research object in our field, examining
how inequalities are connected through an intersectional lens (e.g., race, ethnicity,
gender/sexuality, language, dis/ability, and so on; see Byerly et al., 2023) and illuminating
the unifying principles underlying different forms of inequality (e.g., beliefs in various
forms of supremacy, meritocratic beliefs). Finally, we encourage reflection on what a
deep consideration of social inequality as a pervasive principle of contemporary
societies implies for the theories, methods, and empirical evidence generated by
journalism research.
We invite contributions that explore social inequality within journalism across
various levels of analysis (Shoemaker & Reese, 2014). These include individual news
creators (e.g., questions on journalists’ culturally situated experiences and
backgrounds), journalistic routines (e.g., how manual or AI-supported processes in
journalism contribute to perpetuating inequalities), media organizations (e.g., how global
media elites impact news ecosystems), journalism as a social institution (e.g., what
values related to social inequality are inherent in journalism cultures), and the broader
social system (e.g., comparative analyses on the relationships between social inequality
and journalism in different national and cultural contexts). We call for submissions
addressing social inequality through journalism, investigating the role journalism plays in
maintaining, legitimizing, and/or counteracting social inequalities (e.g., through specific
forms of media coverage). We especially encourage authors to submit papers bridging
the perspectives of inequalities within journalism and their impact on broader social
disparities.
We also invite works on social inequality within journalism research itself,
assessing how social and structural inequalities in contemporary society might change
the way we conduct journalism research—theoretically and empirically. We are
particularly interested in reflecting on how scholarship itself might compound existing
inequalities or help to address them. This includes but is not limited to examining
disparities in knowledge production within the field, conceptualizing social inequality in
relation to similar or related concepts (e.g., diversity), or reflecting on the consequences
of inequality for our theory building (e.g., Kreiss & McGregor, 2024). We also seek
contributions that take a historical approach and explore how social inequalities within,
through, or in relation to journalism (research) have evolved over time. In addressing
these topics, we encourage a wide range of methodological approaches, reflecting the
multifaceted nature of social inequality as a research object.