Lifestyle Journalism

Folker Hanusch

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317849971
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Media Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Lifestyle journalism has experienced enormous growth in the media over the past two decades, but scholars in the fields of journalism and communication studies have so far paid relatively little attention to a field that is still sometimes seen as "not real journalism". There is now an urgent need for in-depth exploration and contextualisation of this field, with its increasing relevance for 21st century consumer cultures.

For the first time, this book presents a wide range of studies which have engaged with the field of lifestyle journalism in order to outline the various political, economic, social and cultural tensions within it. Taking a comparative view, the collection includes studies covering four continents, including countries such as Australia, China, Norway, Denmark, Singapore, the UK and the USA. While keeping the broader lifestyle field in mind, the chapters focus on a variety of sub-fields such as travel, music, food, health, fashion and personal technology journalism. This volume provides a fascinating account of the different facets of lifestyle journalism, and charts the way forward for a more sustained analysis of the field.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Journalism Practice.

BROADENING THE FOCUS

The case for lifestyle journalism as a field of scholarly inquiry

Folker Hanusch

This introduction to the special issue outlines the case for an increased focus on studying lifestyle journalism, an area of journalism which, despite its rapid rise over recent decades, has not received much attention from scholars in journalism studies. Criticised for being antithetical to public interest and watchdog notions of journalism, lifestyle journalism is still ridiculed by some as being unworthy of being associated with the term journalism. However, in outlining the field’s development and a critique of definitions of journalism, this paper argues that there are a number of good reasons for broadening the focus. In fact, lifestyle journalism—here defined as a distinct journalistic field that primarily addresses its audiences as consumers, providing them with factual information and advice, often in entertaining ways, about goods and services they can use in their daily lives—has much to offer for scholarly inquiry and is of increasing relevance for society.

Introduction

Recent decades have seen an apparently rapid rise in media content that falls outside what many have traditionally regarded as “good” journalism. Increasingly, it seems, newspapers, magazines, radio, television and the Internet are preoccupied with what is generally referred to as soft news, rather than the hard, political news which many commentators and scholars would like to see journalists producing. Soft news, which comes in a variety of shapes and forms, is typically seen by them as an indication of an ongoing tabloidisation of the news media, and as such an undesirable development which, in their view, runs counter to idealised notions of what journalism should be and do. Much of this softer journalistic content has come to be known as lifestyle journalism, the part of journalism that primarily focuses on audiences as consumers, providing them with factual information and advice, often in entertaining ways, about goods and services they can use in their daily lives.

The rise of lifestyle journalism can be traced back as far as the 1950s and 1960s and the emergence of consumer culture, when newspapers in many developed countries began to establish dedicated sections to areas that traditionally lay outside the main focus of the first few pages, including areas such as travel, food and health. Cole (2005) believes that this exponential increase in journalism content in the mainstream media was due to technological innovations which allowed newspapers to increase dramatically the number of pages they published daily. He argues that, because there was not enough news to fill papers that were 10 times bigger than previously, softer forms of journalism, such as “health and fitness, food and drink, fashion, property and home improvement, children and education, computers and gaming, gardening and relationships” increasingly entered the fold (Cole, 2005, p. 33). As the number of television channels grew with the arrival of cable and satellite television in many developed countries, airtime had to similarly be filled with content, leading to the establishment, over time, of entire channels devoted to soft news content. The US-based Discovery Channel with its variety of programs and networks on health, cooking, travel and other areas is just one case in point. In fact, the field has become so important to news organisations that a few years ago the news agency Reuters established a wire service devoted specifically to lifestyle content, which includes “entertainment, leisure, lifestyle, food, music, arts, human interest and health stories” (Brook, 2006). Today, even venerable journalistic institutions such as the BBC and the New York Times, which have long been synonymous with hard-news reporting and are regarded as bastions of the best that journalism has to offer, have begun to include extensive programming or sections on lifestyle content.

What is Lifestyle Journalism?

Because relatively little research on lifestyle journalism as a distinct journalistic field exists, in trying to define it, it is useful to go back to traditional definitions of what journalism is, in order to better situate the field. Doing so will also provide us with some insight into why this particular journalistic sub-field has been discredited by journalists and scholars alike. As Zelizer (2004) has shown, there are a number of definitions of journalism, which have at various times been influenced by the agendas of those that have tried to define the term. She has pointed out that scholars have explained journalism through five definitional sets which are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Thus, journalism can be seen “as professionalism, as an institution, as a text, as people, and as a set of practices” (Zelizer, 2004, p. 3). Schudson (2003, p. 11) writes that “journalism is the business or practice of producing and disseminating information about contemporary affairs of general public interest and importance”. While he warns about normative definitions of journalism and acknowledges that there are other types of journalistic practice, Schudson nevertheless focuses on journalism that relates to political affairs, because it is “that part of journalism that makes the strongest claim to public importance” (2003, p. 15). This focus on journalism’s relationship with politics surrounds much of the existing academic work on journalism, and, as Zelizer (2011) notes, there has long been a normative focus on this link. A result of the attention given to the political has been that journalism which is market-oriented, privileging soft over hard news, is seen as almost unworthy of the term journalism. Franklin, for example, has lamented the fact that “the task of journalism has become merely to deliver and serve up what the customer wants; rather like a deep-pan pizza” (1997, p. 5).

Journalism that focuses on areas of societies outside the political domain and which has a closer connection to the economic field than supporters of an entirely independent watchdog role of the media would like, has thus often been held in contempt—an attitude that researchers in fields such as sports journalism—sometimes described as the “toy department of the media”—have also noted (Rowe, 2007, p. 385). This relative neglect of market-driven journalism such as lifestyle journalism has resulted in there being comparatively little knowledge about its structures, processes of production, content and effects it may have on audiences. Journalism outside the normative ideal has thus “become denigrated, relativized, and reduced in value alongside aspirations for something better” (Zelizer, 2011, p. 9).

However, despite the abundance of normative definitions of journalism, there are other conceptualisations which might be more useful and inclusive of types of journalism that fall outside prescriptive expectations. Definitions put forward by scholars from the field of cultural studies have generally been much more accepting of the study of journalism on the margins. For example, McNair (1998, p. 9) sees journalism as “an account of the existing real world as appropriated by the journalist and processed in accordance with the particular requirements of the journalistic medium through which it will be disseminated to some section of the public”. Using such a broad and relatively value-free definition at least provides us with a more open interpretation for a large variety of types of journalism. There is little judgment in such a definition that would privilege political or public-interest reporting over journalism that, for example, aims primarily to entertain but is still based in fact. Further, the focus on the “existing real world” is an important marker when referring to journalism, in order to differentiate it from fictional accounts. In trying to define travel journalism, Fürsich and Kavoori (2001) applied a similar notion by Hartley (1996)—whose central defining aspect was that journalism purports to be true—to differentiate between travel journalists and travel writers.

Yet, while cultural studies-based definitions and conceptualisations have certainly broadened the study of journalism to include those practices on the margins, one can argue that a reverse narrowing has occurred, in that such an approach has quite often focused on only the odd types of journalism and the media attracting attention from scholars, while market-driven journalism within established journalistic institutions that also focus on hard news has been somewhat neglected. Or, as Zelizer (2011, p. 10) puts it, in such research “the New York Times and the BBC do not merit as much attention as does Comedy Central or reality television” (Zelizer, 2011, p. 10).

Nevertheless, a broader, less normative view or definition of journalism is needed in order to encompass other forms of journalism outside the mainstream, and to arrive at a working definition of what lifestyle journalism is. A cursory examination of the academic use of the term “lifestyle journalism” shows that it is being applied in a variety of contexts, albeit often only in passing and with somewhat murky edges in terms of what it includes. The proximity of lifestyle journalism to the economic field is a recurring theme, particularly in work that sees such journalism as inferior to “real” journalism, as if political journalism was never a victim to economic influences. That such criticism is erroneous and perhaps somewhat glorifies a kind of journalism that exists more as an idealised concept than in reality is a theme I will return to later.

The strong market-orientation of lifestyle journalism is certainly a defining aspect of the field. A further component is the fact that much of lifestyle journalism provides “news you can use”, that is, news which audiences can apply in their own lives. This might include stories about holiday destinations which provide practical advice about places to stay, a drive test of a new car model, or a column about how to lead a healthier life. In this context, lifestyle journalism has much in common with—and may in fact be hard to distinguish from—service journalism, which has been described as “the way the news media provide their audiences with information, advice and help about the problems of everyday life” (Eide and Knight, 1999, p. 525). Further, as Hanitzsch (2007) has noted in relation to market-driven journalism more generally, “the materialization of infotainment news and lifestyle journalism exemplifies [the] trend toward a blending of information with advice and guidance as well as with entertainment and relaxation”. In her article in this issue, Elfriede Fürsich identifies three constituting dimensions of the field of lifestyle journalism: providing advice, a review function, and commercialisation. In a study of Australian travel journalists’ professional views (Hanusch, 2011b), I found evidence for five distinct dimensions through which journalists in this sub-field of lifestyle journalism see themselves: as cultural mediators, critics, entertainers, information providers and travellers. The theme of market orientation was expressed in the entertainer and information provider dimensions, while motivational aspects were expressed in the critics and travellers dimensions. These four dimensions provide some useful approaches for studying lifestyle journalism at large, as they can be applied in other fields as well.

Bearing the above conceptualisations in mind, we can define lifestyle journalism as a distinct journalistic field that primarily addresses its audiences as consumers, providing them with factual information and advice, often in entertaining ways, about goods and services they can use in their daily lives. Examples of lifestyle journalism include such fields as travel, fashion, style, health, fitness, wellness, entertainment, leisure, lifestyle, food, music, arts, personal technology, gardening and living. These may constitute individual sections in newspapers, entire magazines, programs on radio or television, or even dedicated websites. As the articles in this special issue demonstrate, lifestyle journalism is affected in similar ways to other types of journalism by wider developments, such as the rise of participatory journalism.

Why Lifestyle Journalism Needs to be Studied

As I have noted previously, lifestyle journalism is regularly criticised by journalists—particularly those who concentrate on hard news—who discount its practice as being aligned too closely with market-driven demands and, particularly, the public relations industry. As a result, lifestyle journalism is seen as a frivolous pursuit or a guilty pleasure, barely worthy of the term journalism. This view also extends to the academic community, which has rarely taken the field seriously, despite the obvious importance lifestyle journalism plays in terms of its prominence in media output and consumption in the twenty-first century. When lifestyle journalism is discussed at all, it is most often in terms of the view that it is dumbing down and detracts from serious journalism. Interestingly, the term lifestyle journalism is not even included in Franklin et al.’s (2005) volume on key concepts in journalism studies, nor are any of its variants, such as service journalism. Nevertheless, the terms infotainment and market-driven journalism appear, albeit generally in a context of such journalism contributing to a “dumbing down” of audiences. There has been some attention to the topic predominantly from a cultural studies perspective, which has engaged with the meanings produced by such journalism on the margins. Most notably, Hartley (2000) has repeatedly argued that the softer side of the media, such as lifestyle and consumer journalism, could actually have a beneficial impact on audiences who are increasingly tired of traditional hard news formats. Hartley (2000, p. 40) believes that such practices are “the ones who extend the reach of media, who teach audiences the pleasures of staying tuned, who popularize knowledge”. In this vein, he sees enormous potential for such journalistic endeavours to contribute to the public sphere, albeit in perhaps different ways than traditional mainstream journalism.

Nevertheless, while individual areas such as travel (Fürsich, 2002; Hanusch, 2010, Hanusch, 2011a, 2011b; McGaurr, 2010; Santos, 2004, 2006) have received some attention over the past decade, there exist few comprehensive approaches examining the field of lifestyle journalism in its entirety, with attention to its structures, conditions of production, its messages as well as its meanings in an increasingly globalised, consumption-driven world. What is further needed is a scholarly debate about the impact that lifestyle journalism is having on traditional concepts and understandings of journalism. To what extent does lifestyle journalism challenge established views of what journalism is or what it should be about?

Commercialism has always been an integral component of journalism, despite normative arguments that see an historical period during which journalism was supposedly perfect. Schudson (1995, p. 203) has argued against the “retrospective wishful thinking” that has occurred from time to time when scholars have asserted the existence of a past golden age of journalism. That news does not just include political news or news of public importance is evident from the earliest forerunners of today’s newspapers. The acta diurnal populi Romani—hand-written newssheets displayed in public places and containing mostly government announcements and official ceremonies as well as a record of births, deaths and marriages—did have official news as their primary objective. But Giffard (1975, p. 107) notes that the acta was also full of accounts of wars, as well as “earthquakes, eclipses, famines and prodigies”. Later, the acta also included news of crimes and divorce, and increasingly news about social life and, as Stephens (2007, p. 57) reports, a large number of human-interest stories: “Pliny the Elder attributes to the acta … the story of the execution of a man whose dog simply would not leave his dead master’s side, even going so far as to follow his master’s corpse into the Tiber River in an effort to keep it afloat.” The criticism that is often levelled at a perceived dumbing down in today’s media (which assumes that news media provided only intelligent commentary during earlier times) was evident even during Roman times, with statesmen like Cicero heavily objecting to the reports of gladiators, burglaries and adjourned trials, which he described as “tittle-tattle”. As Stephens (2007, p. 55) points out, “people have been following such stories, and high-minded people like Cicero have been complaining about them, for millennia”.

Johann Carolus, credited as publishing the world’s first newspaper, Relation, in 1605, is said to have had no journalistic motives for changing his production of handwritten newssheets to the new technology of mass printing. Commercial aspects were the primary objective. “All he was interested in, as a modest entrepreneur, was rationalizing the running of the business and making it more efficient—‘gaining time’, because ‘the copying has been slow’” (Weber, 2006, p. 392). From the first days of regular newspapers, political news was, along with numerous sensationalised and “soft” stories, only a part of the daily news staple. Similarly, commercial motives were primarily responsible for the introduction of women’s pages and women’s magazines and a slow increase in the number of female journalists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. For example, Kitch (2002, p. 88) has argued that the increasing visibility of female journalists during the course of the twentieth century signalled a “growing importance of female newspaper readers during an era when rising literacy, a growing middle class and industrialisation changed the pattern of women’s lives”. Whitt (2008) also points out that the expansion in women’s pages in newspapers ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• Preface
• 1. Broadening the Focus: The case for lifestyle journalism as a field of scholarly inquiry
• 2. Lifestyle Journalism as Popular Journalism: Strategies for evaluating its public role
• 3. Lifestyle Journalism: Blurring boundaries
• 4. The Devil May Care: Travel journalism, cosmopolitan concern, politics and the brand
• 5. Bread and Circuses: Food meets politics in the Singapore media
• 6. Health and Lifestyle to Serve the Public: A case study of a cross-media programme series from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation
• 7. Hypertextuality and Remediation in the Fashion Media: The case of fashion blogs
• 8. Service Journalism as Community Experience: Personal technology and personal finance at The New York Times
• 9. A New Generation of Lifestyle Magazine Journalism in China: The professional approach
• Index