Sofia Johansson

GOSSIP, SPORT AND PRETTY GIRLS: What does “trivial” journalism mean to tabloid newspaper readers?

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.

‘They Just Make Sense’: Tabloid Newspapers as an Alternative Public Sphere

At the centre of media controversy, tabloids continue to be the best-read newspapers in the UK. But in spite of their popularity, these papers are often accused of debasing democratic communication. Indeed, tabloid journalism in the UK and elsewhere has been placed at the forefront of a ‘dumbing down’ of the media, whereby popular, commercial media fail to measure up to Habermas’s seminal idea of the public sphere as a forum for debate on matters of public interest.

Experts, dads and technology Gendered talk about online music

With the internet and digital media technology increasingly central to practices around music, this shift is often seen as contributing to a networked music use characterized by individualism. Drawing on a focus group study with young adults in Stockholm and Moscow, this article argues, however, that digital music use today is shaped by discourses of difference, with gender a significant factor both in constructions of the ideal music and technology user, and in terms of musical influence and guidance. Taking into account contemporary research on new media technology, as well as feminist studies of technology and music, the article questions ideas of a neutral user of new music technologies, showing how the gendering of music and media technology can be seen as simultaneously context-bound and cutting across geographies.

Celebrity culture and audiences: a Swedish case study

This article examines how media consumers of different age, gender and socio-economic backgrounds in Stockholm relate to and talk about celebrities and celebrity media. Based on 16 small focus groups with 17 year olds and 45–55 year olds, with male and female participants from working-class as well as academic backgrounds, I investigate a range of responses to celebrity content in connection with overall media developments in Sweden, in order to gain insights into what the contemporary cultural emphasis on celebrity can mean on an audience level within a particular context. Some of the pleasures gained from celebrity content but also elements of celebrity ‘hatred’ and experiences of media manipulation are explored. Likewise, some of the articulations of individual celebrities and celebrity media are discussed as interlinked with socially determined identity positions such as age, gender and social class.

Book Review: Renewing Feminisms: Radical Narratives, Fantasies and Futures in Media Studies : Helen Thornham Elke Weissmann (eds)

Book Review: Renewing Feminisms: Radical Narratives, Fantasies and Futures in Media Studies : Helen Thornham Elke Weissmann (eds)

Book Review: Renewing Feminisms: Radical Narratives, Fantasies and Futures in Media StudiesThornhamHelenWeissmannElke (eds), Renewing Feminisms: Radical Narratives, Fantasies and Futures in Media Studies. London & New York: I.B. Tauris, 2013.

Book Review: Renewing Feminisms: Radical Narratives, Fantasies and Futures in Media Studies : Helen Thornham Elke Weissmann (eds)

Book Review: Renewing Feminisms: Radical Narratives, Fantasies and Futures in Media Studies

Book Review: Renewing Feminisms: Radical Narratives, Fantasies and Futures in Media Studies : Helen Thornham Elke Weissmann (eds)