The Image of Black Western Journalists in Novels: Fact or Fiction?

Abstract

The IJPC Journal, Volumes 11 and 12 - Fall 2023 - Spring 2026. The DEI backlash in the United States and the United Kingdom is harming journalism, which is already in crisis. News organizations are not fulfilling their ethical requirement to reflect society via the content they produce, nor the people who produce it. Those bearing the brunt of these failures are Black women, who are among the most underrepresented groups in editorial roles in US and UK newsrooms. A lack of diversity in journalism, racial or otherwise, contributes to the worsening democratic deficit, as audiences receive skewed or inaccurate views of their country and the world. This paper argues that fictionalized accounts of Black women journalists, written by Black women authors who have lived experience of the British and US journalistic fields, offer important insight into frequently overlooked perspectives. In doing so, this paper centers the importance of popular culture to challenge power in ways ‘mainstream’ Western news outlets are largely failing to do