"Part of the gig:" Negotiating the press conference rite surrounding Naomi Osaka's "bombshell" decision.

This article examines metajournalistic discourse—how journalists discuss their own profession—by analyzing UK and French digital news coverage of tennis star Naomi Osaka’s 2021 decision to withdraw from press conferences at the French Open due to mental health concerns. It distinguishes between manifest metajournalistic discourse, where journalists explicitly comment on journalistic practices through direct quotes or first-person accounts, and latent metajournalistic discourse, which is embedded subtly within news narratives through storytelling elements, source selection, and descriptive language. The study finds that both forms operate simultaneously in coverage, shaping narratives that frame press conferences as contested journalistic rituals and positioning Osaka’s decision within broader debates about journalistic authority, athlete obligations, and media culture. This dual conceptualization extends understanding of how journalistic subjectivities influence news production and presentation beyond overt commentary on journalism itself.