The “Truth” Behind Newsroom Humor

Abstract

Modern humor research commonly takes its cue from Freud and his position that jokes are a way to express risky ideas without fear of consequences. The journalism industry has undergone noticeable changes over the past two decades, and these shifts have clearly affected news products. However, these changes have also had noticeable effects on newsroom culture, a subject that has received far less attention from scholars. Since newsroom culture directly affects newsroom production, this study proposes a new way to access newsrooms in order to open conversations between newsroom scholars and practitioners. By applying an ethnographic content analysis (ECA) to published newsroom humor on the blog “Overheard in the Newsroom,” this study reveals issues that contemporary newsroom workers use to relate with their colleagues across the industry.