This essay argues that today’s journalism studies stick too much to a traditional concept of man and society and therefore to a too confined idea of what journalism is, could be and should be. The starting point is a discussion about the new course of the most important quality newspaper of the Netherlands, NRC Handelsblad. Its critics equalize this new course with popular (also called soft, lifestyle or human interest) journalism and even with tabloidization, which in its turn is traditionally seen as the opposite of quality journalism. But popular journalism is not only a very vague term but also a segment of the journalistic field that is poorly analysed. Although this recently seems to be changing, as is shown by the Cardiff 2013 conference on the future of the profession, most journalism scholars still stay away from it. After having given some reasons for this neglect, this essay argues that we have no choice but changing our focus, even if we go on thinking about popular journalism as just ‘garbage’ – a view the author doesn’t support, the term is used as a honorary nickname or what is called in Dutch a Geuzennaam.1 The most important reason for this necessity is simple: the growth of popular journalism is unstoppable if only because of the invasion of non- professionals in the field. However, there is another and perhaps more interesting case to be made for popular journalism: the changing characteristics of our society in which the care for politics in the narrow sense of the term (developments concerning the state) is every day less important than the care for politics in the broad and original sense of the term (developments concerning society & the self). Although the analysis of the last phase of modernity so far leads to little more than debate and confusion, there seems to be no doubt about its consequences for media and journalism. Popular journalism, to put it shortly, is more than ever a part of our world. Neglecting it is like closing one’s eyes. By doing so journalism studies manoeuvre itself in an undesirable position.

1. a Dutch perspective

2. Starting point: the NRC Handelsblad debate
Changes in the Dutch quality newspaper
Reproach of tabloidization
The classical daily with its enlightenment program of Lux
and Libertas, dedicates too much space to personal
stories, emotion, lunch-interviews, gossip and other forms of
tabloid journalism
Also: loss for society

3. Tabloidization as an important aspect of
nowadays journalism. But……

4. My paper: an odd man out
Paradigm study
Literature study
Research questions

5. Literature study
Just one theme has been exhaustively investigated:
The question of tabloidization itself.
But the results are completely contradictory

6. ‘We lack concepts, we need clear terms’
‘It is hard to think of other concepts that are so
important and popular and at the same time so
poorly defined and theorized as soft news.’

7. Lack of interest is the more strange because…
things are changing (the buzzword of
the moment), very quickly,
a change nobody can stop
(and as far as can been seen with tabloidization as a dominant
tendency)

8. Source: Colin Sparks & John Tulloch: Tabloid Tales (2000)

9. Long, international tradition of
journalism studies
Walter Lippmann
Journalists are public intellectuals who
‘provide not only the facts but also the formats, norms and rhetorics
that citizens employ to develop their opinions’ (about public
life, politics, economics & sports).

10. Some important changes
 Blurring of differences (as shown)
 Invasion of non-professionals in the field (end of
monopoly)
 Growing consciousness of narrow-mindedness of
journalism studies (influence of cultural & historical
studies)
 Market pressure (competition, user oriented)
 Weltbild of public & students

12. Research 1
Research 2

13. Subjects of future study
 What are we talking about? The nature of the blurring & the truth of
the lack of study of popular journalism
 The history of a contempt
 The effects of popular journalism in past & present
 Definitions, terms, language, lay out, image use, literature
 The nature of today’s change (update Sparks)
 Popular journalism & modern citizenship (I-
epistomology, Ratgeberjournalismus, first person media)
 Ethics of journalism in a consumer society

14. University of Applied Sciences, Utrecht School of Journalism

15. Subjects of future study
 What are we talking about? The nature of the blurring & the truth of
the lack of study of popular journalism
 The history of a contempt
 The effects of popular journalism in past & present
 Definitions, terms, language, lay out, image use, literature
 The nature of today’s change (update Sparks)
 Popular journalism & modern citizenship (I-
epistomology, Ratgeberjournalismus, first person media)
 Ethics of journalism in a consumer society