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Abstract
Taking a point of departure in theories about cultural (inter)mediation, this article provides a theoretical framework for explaining the pervasion of churnalism within the specialised beat of cultural journalism. Compared to other types of journalists, cultural journalists are “journalists with a difference”, since they are closely intertwined with sources, and public relations subsidies are “structurally embedded” in the beat’s professional rationales. This has intensified with the professionalisation of the culture industries’ media management during the past decades, prompting continuous critique of cultural journalists for not conforming to journalism’s norms of sourcing. However, such critical claims are typically based on the conventional ideologies of Western journalism and often sidestep the distinct nature of this particular beat. These theoretical arguments are backed by a case study of the interplay of the publishing industry and the Danish press in relation to the publicising of the fourth Millennium book in 2015, a sequel to deceased author Stieg Larsson’s successful trilogy from the mid-2000s. This case exemplifies cultural journalism’s inclination towards “churnalism”, and how churnalism may, in fact, comply with the beat’s professional logics. However, it also shows that churnalism can spark critical meta-reflections among journalists on the interplay of the culture industries and the press.
Notes
1 Though the literature often quotes Forde (Citation2003, 113) for introducing this term, Forde in fact references English (Citation1979) for having introduced it.
2 The use of various terms in the international literature complicates the full picture of the research field. In the Anglo-Saxon tradition “arts journalism” is a common term (e.g. Szántó, Levy, and Tyndall Citation2004), but Nordic scholarship uses “cultural journalism”.
3 Since Bourdieu introduced the term, the literature has provided numerous definitions of cultural intermediaries and used it about a variety of professional groups beyond those working in the news industry (e.g. Maguire and Matthews Citation2014).
4 Strahan (Citation2011) shows than 8 in 10 cultural articles in Australian newspapers arise from cultural events or releases of new cultural products or from interviews with artists or cultural producers. Also 8 in 10 cultural articles in Danish print/online newspapers represent some sort of churnalism, based on news agency information, other news media’s stories, a press release, press junkets or reports pushed by news sources (Kristensen Citation2016).
5 These data were collected in Spring 2016 as part of a comparative Nordic study involving Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. This article only reports on selected parts of the Danish coverage. The tabloids are: BT (centre-right, 144,000 daily readers) and Ekstra Bladet (centre-left, 149,000 daily readers). The national newspapers, considered the main newspapers in Denmark due to circulation, agenda-setting role and different political leadings, are: Politiken (centre-left with a distinct cultural profile, 325,000 daily readers), Berlingske (conservative, 195,000 daily readers) and Jyllands-Posten (liberal, 235,000 daily readers). The two niche newspapers are Information (left-wing, 94,000 daily readers) and Kristligt Dagblad (Christian-based, 118,000 daily readers). The two regional newspapers are: Jyske Vestkysten (representing the Jutland region, 134,000 daily readers) and Fyens Stiftstidende (representing the Fyn region, 95,000 daily readers). See Q4 2015 and Q1 2016 figures from Gallup: http://tns-gallup.dk/work/media/laesertal/Læsertal%204k%202015%20-%201k%202016.pdf (accessed December 19, 2016).
6 The omitted articles were typically about Lagercrantz’s biography of Swedish football legend Zlatan Ibrahimovic from 2011.
7 This was also a distinctively different strategy compared to similar large-scale publications such as Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. Thompson (Citation2010, 249), for example, points out that 10,000 reading copies were distributed to initiate press coverage and word-of-mouth prior to this book’s publishing.