Gossip, Sport and Pretty Girls

What does “trivial” journalism mean to tabloid newspaper readers

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12908975
AutoresSofia Johansson (0000-0002-6847-7193, autor de correspondencia)
Año2008
Volumen2
Número3
Páginas402-413
Fecha de publicación2008-09-02
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournalism Practice (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1751-2786 • E-ISSN: 1751-2794
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17512780802281131
OpenAlexW2143567341
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas14
Referencias citadas8

At the centre of media controversy, tabloids continue to be the best-read newspapers in Britain. Competing for the largest group of the British newspaper readers, these papers have been criticized for abandoning their journalistic responsibility, to the detriment of society and the media climate at large. Yet, little research has been conducted on the reception of tabloid journalism. Building on the ongoing debate about popular journalism and “tabloidization”, this article draws on focus groups and interviews with 55 male and female young adult readers of the Sun and the Daily Mirror, the two circulation leaders among the popular tabloids. It provides an analysis of readers’ experiences of what is often perceived of as typically “trivial” tabloid journalism, such as human interest, sport and celebrity stories, with the aim of providing a better understanding of the popularity of this kind of newspaper content. In doing so, readers’ experiences are related to day-to-day routines and the social structures surrounding these, and the article shows how tabloid newspaper reading links with a wider social context. Keywords: celebrity journalismnewspaper readingtabloid readerstabloidizationtabloids Notes 1. Two previous qualitative, English-language studies of the context and experience of tabloid reading—Elisabeth Bird's (Citation1992) study of US supermarket tabloids, and Mark Pursehouse's (Citation1992) article on a small number of Sun-readers—have provided insights, with both for instance finding that tabloid reading was related to an alienation from, as Bird puts it, “dominant narrative forms and frames of reference” (1992, p. 109). Ongoing doctoral research by Mascha Brichta on tabloid reading in the United Kingdom and Germany will shed light on cross-cultural comparisons. See also Brichta (Citation2002) on the reception of the German BILD-Zeitung. 2. The initially selected age category following industry quotas was 18–34, but two group members were aged 35. 3. Figures from the National Readership Survey 2004. 4. All names are pseudonymous to protect respondents’ privacy. 5. While this reader liked talking about these “ladies”, he also stated that as a muslim, he ought to think pin-ups should not be in a newspaper. His resolve for this obvious contradiction was that although “muslims are religious people”, “when they come to the Western [sic] it's okay”. This response to Western media exposure of nudity illustrates how identity positions shift over different sets of values, and how the reading is one area where different aspects of these are emphasized and juggled with. 6. As a second-generation immigrant from Pakistan, the daily connection with the Sun for Kiani appeared to strengthen his own identification with “Britain”. It highlights how perceived stable identities, such as the security that comes with belonging to a nation, may be especially appreciated in the context of volatile identificatory relations in other areas

Advertising · Business · Gossip · Media studies · Sociology · Sociology of sport · Doping in Sports · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · Gender Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology