Liquid Modern Journalism with a Difference

Abstract

Reflecting a change from high to liquid modern culture, journalism is said to be encountering a transformation from high towards liquid modernity. Cultural journalism, however, has been found to be “journalism with a difference”. Due to this distinctive character, the principles of general journalism do not directly apply to cultural journalism. Consequently, the manifestations and consequences of the high and liquid modern ethos appear differently in cultural journalism. Proposing a theoretical framework of the core aspects of journalism—(1) knowledge, (2) audience, (3) power, (4) time, and (5) ethics—this article argues that cultural journalists differ from other journalists in their responses to the recent transformations in the professional values, working practices and the status of journalists.

KEYWORDS:

• cultural journalism
• journalistic ideology
• liquid modern journalism
• modernity
• professionalism

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In fact, journalists in Kantola’s (2013, 613–619) study fall into three groups: (1) the solid moderns (born 1939–1955), (2) the liquefying moderns (born 1956–1969), and (3) the liquid moderns (born 1970 onwards); whereas we condense the categorization into two (see also Kantola 2011).