When Journalists are Voiceless: How Lifestyle Journalists Cover Hate and Mitigate Harassment

ABSTRACT

Often trivialized within the broader journalistic field, lifestyle journalists would seem to have the dream job: the opportunity to get paid to do what they love. The present study explores an under-discussed but material aspect of the job; namely, how lifestyle journalists undertake issues of hostility. Through the lens of the theory of hostility towards the press and in-depth interviews with lifestyle journalists (n = 24), this study argues that journalists tend to cover issues of hate against their audience members but seek to ignore harassment when directed at them.

KEYWORDS:

• Lifestyle journalism
• harassment
• hate
• emotional labor
• interviews
• hostility

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Appalachian State University Mobile Journalism class from fall 2021 for helping collect this data: Ansley Puckett, Abi Peppin, Jake Markland, Megan Petty, Hunter Grubbs, Jenna Hatcher, Charles Pace, Tyler Bradbandt, Makaelah Walters, Haley Canal, Marlen Cardenas, Char Street, Cameron Stuart, Casey Brown, Candace Little, and Holly Hodges. The authors would also like to thank fantastic undergrad RAs Ella Hackett and Alexis Handler for organizing the data.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).