TY - JOUR
T1 - From magazines to blogs
T2 - The shifting boundaries of fashion journalism
AU - Cheng, Lydia
AU - Tandoc, Edson C.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.
PY - 2022/6
Y1 - 2022/6
N2 - Current literature examining journalism’s boundary work has focused mostly on traditional, hard news journalism, while soft news journalism, such as lifestyle journalism, has largely been overlooked. Guided by the framework of boundary work, this paper examines how traditional fashion journalists and fashion bloggers define their own professionalism and what that says about the negotiation of fashion journalism’s boundaries. Through a textual analysis of the ‘About’ pages of 40 mainstream fashion magazine websites and fashion blogs, this paper shows that fashion magazines and fashion blogs demonstrate differences in four areas: mode of presentation, rituals of asserting authority, organisational structure, and relationship with the audience. For each theme, fashion magazine websites and fashion blogs display different approaches that help to shape their professional identities. These four areas serve as markers of the emerging – and perhaps blurring – boundaries between the two media actors. Findings from this study have implications not just on boundary work in journalism, but also on the very definitions of journalist and journalism, and on the evolving digital cultural industry, particularly in relation to lifestyle-centred content.
AB - Current literature examining journalism’s boundary work has focused mostly on traditional, hard news journalism, while soft news journalism, such as lifestyle journalism, has largely been overlooked. Guided by the framework of boundary work, this paper examines how traditional fashion journalists and fashion bloggers define their own professionalism and what that says about the negotiation of fashion journalism’s boundaries. Through a textual analysis of the ‘About’ pages of 40 mainstream fashion magazine websites and fashion blogs, this paper shows that fashion magazines and fashion blogs demonstrate differences in four areas: mode of presentation, rituals of asserting authority, organisational structure, and relationship with the audience. For each theme, fashion magazine websites and fashion blogs display different approaches that help to shape their professional identities. These four areas serve as markers of the emerging – and perhaps blurring – boundaries between the two media actors. Findings from this study have implications not just on boundary work in journalism, but also on the very definitions of journalist and journalism, and on the evolving digital cultural industry, particularly in relation to lifestyle-centred content.
KW - Blogs
KW - boundary work
KW - fashion journalism
KW - lifestyle journalism
KW - magazine journalism
KW - magazines
KW - textual analysis
KW - women’s magazines
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85099384591&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1464884920988183
DO - 10.1177/1464884920988183
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85099384591
SN - 1464-8849
VL - 23
SP - 1213
EP - 1232
JO - Journalism
JF - Journalism
IS - 6
ER -