The media is a key institution in producing, legitimizing and disseminating cultural classifications. From this perspective, newspapers and their sections devoted to culture are particularly interesting. This article examines how the structures of quality European newspapers have changed over time and in different socio-historical contexts, especially regarding the amount of space allocated to and the placement of articles related to culture. We draw on data from Helsingin Sanomat (Finland), Le Monde (France), ABC/El País (Spain), Dagens Nyheter (Sweden) and The Guardian (United Kingdom) – covering the time frame from 1960 to 2010. We use three types of data: individual articles about culture (N = 11,775), data on all the issues (N = 585) and full editions of the newspapers (N = 30). We show that the amount of space dedicated to culture has increased but that the placement of articles on culture has shifted slightly. We detect only weak signs of the assumed crisis of cultural journalism.
ArmañanzasE (2013) Suplementos culturales. Bilbao: Universidad del País Vasco.
3.
BergerM (ed.) (1998) The Crisis of Criticism. New York: New York Press.
4.
BourdieuP (1993) The Field of Cultural Production. New York: Columbia University Press.
5.
BourdieuP (1994) L’emprise du journalisme. Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales101(1): 3–9.
6.
Brink LundARaeymaeckersKTrappelJ (2011) Newspapers: Adapting and experimenting. In: TrappelJMeierWAD’HaenensL. (eds) Media in Europe Today. Bristol: Intellect. pp. 45–59.
7.
CarrollN (2009) On Criticism. New York: Routledge.
8.
Davara TorregoFJ (2005) Los periódicos españoles en el tardo franquismo. Consecuencias de la nueva ley de prensa. Revista Comunicación y Hombre2005(1): 131–147.
9.
ElkinsJ (2003) What Happened to Art Criticism?Chicago, IL: Prickly Paradigm Press.
GiddensA (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
12.
GustafssonKERydénP (2010) A History of the Press in Sweden. Gothenburg: Nordicom.
13.
HartleyJ (1992) The Politics of Pictures. London: Routledge.
14.
HurriM (1993) Kulttuuriosasto: Symboliset taistelut, sukupolvikonflikti ja sananvapaus viiden pääkaupunkilehden kulttuuritoimituksissa 1945–80. Tampere: Tampereen yliopisto.
15.
JaakkolaM (2014) Witnesses of a cultural crisis: Representations of media- related metaprocesses as professional metacriticism of arts and cultural journalism. International Journal of Cultural Studies18(8): 537–554.
16.
JaakkolaM (2015) The Contested Autonomy of Arts and Journalism: Change and Continuity in the Dual Professionalism of Cultural Journalism. Tampere: Tampere University Press.
17.
JanewayMSzántóA (2003) Arts, culture, and media in the United States. The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society32(4): 279–292.
18.
JanssenS (1999) Art journalism and cultural change: The coverage of the arts in Dutch newspapers 1965–1990. Poetics26(5/6): 329–348.
19.
JanssenSKuipersGVerboordM (2008) Cultural globalization and arts journalism: The international orientation of arts and culture coverage in Dutch, French, German, and the U.S. newspapers, 1955–2005. American Sociological Review73(5): 719–740.
20.
JanssenSVerboordMKuipersG (2011) Comparing cultural classification: High and popular arts in European and U.S. elite newspapers. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie63(51): 139–168.
21.
KellyMMazzoleniGMcQuailD (eds) (2014) The Media in Europe: The Euromedia Handbook. London: SAGE.
22.
KrippendorffK (2004) Content Analysis: An Introduction to its Methodology (2nd edn). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
23.
KristensenNN (2010) Cultural journalism in the Danish printed press: A history of decline or increasing media institutional profiling?Northern Lights8(1): 69–92.
McChesneyRW (2011) The crisis of journalism and the Internet. In: MeikleGReddenG (eds) News Online: Transformations and Continuities. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.53–68.
27.
McDonaldR (2007) The Death of the Critic. London: Continuum.
28.
PetersonRA (1997) The rise and fall of highbrow snobbery as a status marker. Poetics25(2–3): 75–92.
29.
PetersonRAKernRM (1996) Changing highbrow taste: From snob to omnivore. American Sociological Review61(5): 900–907.
30.
PurhonenSHeikkiläRLauronenT. (2015b) The grand opening? A comparative study of changes in the conception and content of culture and the arts in five European newspapers. 1960–2010. Paper presented at the conference of European sociological association, RN5: Sociology of Consumption, Prague, Czech Republic, 25–28 August 2015.
31.
PurhonenSLauronenTHeikkiläR (2015a) Into the great wide open? A comparative study of the contents of newspaper culture sections in the UK and Finland, 1970–2010. Research on Finnish Society8: 5–18.
32.
RiffeDAustCFLacySR (1993) The effectiveness of random, consecutive day and constructed week samples in newspaper content analysis. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly70(1): 133–139.
33.
SchmutzVVan VenrooijAJanssenS. (2010) Change and continuity in newspaper coverage of popular music since 1955: Evidence from the United States, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Popular Music and Society33(4): 501–515.
34.
Smith MaguireJMatthewsJ (eds) (2014) The Cultural Intermediaries Reader. London: SAGE.
35.
StegertG (1998) Feuilleton für alle: Strategien im Kulturjournalismus der Presse. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.
36.
SzántóALevyDSTyndallA (eds) (2004) Reporting the Arts II: News Coverage of Arts and Culture in America. New York: National Arts Journalism Program, Columbia University.
37.
TaylorG (1993) Changing Faces: A History of The Guardian 1956–88. London: Fourth Estate Ltd.
VerboordMJanssenS (2015) Arts journalism and its packaging in France, Germany, The Netherlands and The United States, 1955–2005. Journalism Practice9(6): 829–852.
41.
VerboordMKuipersGJanssenS (2015) Institutional recognition in the transnational literary field, 1955–2005. Cultural Sociology9(3): 447–465.
42.
WeibullLNilssonÅ (2010) Four decades of European newspapers: Structure and content. In: GripsrudJWeibullL (eds) Media, Markets & Public Spheres. Bristol, CT: Intellect, pp. 39–70.
