CfP: Lifestyle Journalism - Journalism Practice Special Issue

JOURNALISM PRACTICE
Special Issue on Lifestyle Journalism -Call for Papers
Guesteditor: Folker Hanusch

The past two decades or so have seen an exponential rise in consumer-oriented
journalistic output outside the traditional hard news arena. Increasingly, itseems that
newspapers and broadcast news spend less time on hard news, but provide their audiences
with more soft news content, much of which has become known as lifestyle journalism.
Despite the rise of lifestyle journalism – such as travel, entertainment, leisure,
lifestyle, food, music, arts, gardening and human interest stories – the field is still
viewed with much sceptticism from many journalists and academics alike.
In recent years, there have been some attempts at examining aspects of lifestyle
journalism more seriously, such as in travel journalism. However, a comprehensive
scholarly investigation of the field as a whole has yet not been forthcoming. Yet, as
lifestyle journalism expands in the modern news media environment, and audiences are
increasingly drawn to its content, it is crucial that academic researchers investigate
its professional practices in order to further our understanding of the field and in
this way to examine in what way lifestyle journalism may challenge existing definitions
and understandings of journalism, which have traditionally been linked to journalism’s
role as a provider of hard news. Further, lifestyle journalism’s proximity to the
economic field needs to be assessed in this context.
This special issue therefore seeks to provide a space for a scholarly discussion and
contextualisation of the phenomenon that is lifestyle journalism. Articles are invited
that critically examine the professional practices and the content of the various
sub-fields of lifestyle journalism, or investigate the phenomenon of lifestyle
journalism as compared to other forms of journalism. Suggested areas of focus include,
but are not limited to:

· Comprehensive analyses of individual sub-fields, such as food, fashion,
entertainment, music, art, travel, and others
· Historical studies of the development of lifestyle journalism
· Theoretical explorations of lifestyle journalism’s impact on contemporary
understandings of journalism
· Examinations of the motivations, professional orientations and standards of lifestyle
journalists
· Comparisons of lifestyle with news content
· Comparative approaches to lifestyle journalism in different countries
· The unique economic influences in lifestyle journalism
· Explorations of the ethics of lifestyle journalism
· Lifestyle journalism on a variety of platforms, such as newspapers, TV and online
· Lifestyle journalism and participatory journalism

Prospective authors should email an abstract of approximately 500 words to Folker
Hanusch (fhanusch@usc.edu.au). The special issue will review all submissions, and
successful authors will be invited to submit a full manuscript. Selected papers will be
subjected to peer review.

· Deadline for abstracts: end June 2010
· Deadline for submission of articles for review: early January 2011
· Final revised papers due: end June 2011
· Publication: end of 2011/early 2012

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