10.1515/nor-2017-0262 Presentation of the research program The Intimization of Journalism Transformations of Medialized Public Spheres from the 1880s to Current Times ANJA HIRDMAN, MADELEINE KLEBERG & KRISTINA WIDESTEDT The primary purpose of the project is to study mocratizing potential of representing and debtating what is included in and excluded from the mediali- private issues in the mediated public sphere? zed public spheres at different points of time dur- The project is concerned with media representa- ing the period of 1885 through 2005, with particular tions and constructions of the intimate sphere, as focus on themes and issues related to family, sexu- well as with intimacy as a manner of addressing the ality and “the private”. media audience. A tendency towards increased media attention to The empirical material includes newspapers and these subjects in the late twentieth century has been magazines of two early periods, i.e., the years widely noted. Some researchers see it as trivia- around 1885 and 1925. Other chosen periods are the lization, feminization or tabloidization, whereas oth- years around 1935, when radio will be included in ers prefer to talk about democratization and popu- the analyses, and 1965, 1980 and 2000, when tele- larization, stressing the broadening of public discus- vision is included, as well. sions to include issues previously not debated and The chosen periods capture significant changes in the inclusion of heretofore marginalized groups. We, journalism as well as in society – changes which raise for our part, have chosen the phrase “the intimiza- questions about boundaries between the intimate tion of journalism” to describe this process. sphere and the public. Discursive methods are used in This intimization of journalism is conceived of the analyses of the journalistic texts including images. here as a continuous process, closely related to the development of a mass circulation press and mod- ern journalistic practices in the 1880s, when the in- Introduction terview as a working method and the use of photo- The Intimization of Journalism is a program in the graphic pictures became increasingly important in field of journalism and media research that consid- journalism, in Sweden and abroad. ers the public sphere discourses of intimacy in a Contemporary media output is heavily sexuali- historical perspective. What is considered intimate zed overall, i.e., private issues are more and more is, like the concept of “private life”, closely related directed towards sexual intimacy. One important to how the public sphere is constructeed. But, question arises: Might this pervasive sexualization whereas “private” can be defined in spatial terms, as in the media actually undermine the originally de- a place apart from public arenas, “intimate” is more complex. Intimacy is a fluid and, we find, histori- cally metamorphic category that includes elements Anja Hirdman, Ph.D., Madeleine Kleberg, Ph.D., of identity and sexuality and, in the case of journal- Kristina Widestedt, Ph.D., Senior Lecturers at De- ism, a position vis-à-vis the public and sources. It partment of Journalism, Media and Communi- is in the public sphere that intimacy is defined. cation, Stockholm University, P.O. Box 27861, SE- As we conceive of it, intimacy is both a place 115 93 Stockholm, [email protected], kleberg@ within private life, the home (the intimate sphere) jmk.su.se, [email protected] and an act constituted by social relations and a form 109 of medial address. A similar dichotomy applies to with material about society, public life and the pri- our concept of what is “public”, as well: the public vate sphere. At the same time, much of the material sphere is at once a place – plazas, parks, shopping relates to so-called private matters – according to malls, theatres – and an act that includes elements of Habermas’ classical dichotomy, whereby the inti- journalism and publicity, stat ements intended for mate sphere concerns “hearth and home” and repro- public consumption, and political praxis. That is to duction, and the public sphere, political, economic say, we conceive of “intimacy”, as opposed to and societal issues (Habermas 1988). “privateness”, as including social interactions. Con- Thus, a media and journalism research perspec- sequently, we have chosen to contrast the intimate tive implies the formulation of a more flexible de- sphere (rather than the private sphere) with the marcation of private versus public inasmuch as the public sphere; both are constituted by communica- media, starting in their more institutionalized mass tive social relations. The medialized public sphere is production phase (around 1880), have interwoven seen to consist of different arenas defined in time the private and the public spheres, mixing the inti- and space (different media), where the definition mate with the public. This is particularly true of and use of intimacy occurs and takes place. content (a focus on everyday life), but also narra- The program is indebted in large part to feminist tive form (the address, use of illustrations/photos). and gender theory. We consider it important to view Rather few theories of the public sector involve the concept of gender in relation to issues concerning media; those that do apply for the most part Haber- the different kinds of power over discourses and mas’ conceptual structure, viz., that media are dis- problem formulation that are at stake in the media- cussed in terms of how they relate to other kinds of lized public sphere. Gender relations, and definitions public spheres (the bourgeois in Habermas’ case), of them, are an ongoing process, and it is interesting without taking account of the medialized public to see which representations of these relations have sphere itself as a specific kind of publicity or been in currency at different points in time. This ap- “publicness”. Interesting in this regard is precisely proach makes femininity and masculinity accessible the quality of this medialized public sphere, in to analysis as historical and medial categories. which the private, the intimate, is used and defined (cf. Fraser 1992, Landes 1998). Aims and Background In theoretical terms, the aim of the research pro- Intimization gram is to define certain starting points for a his- That growing focus on “private life”, on the inti- toric/thematic discourse analysis of the transforma- mate sphere, that is seen to characterize media con- tions of the medialized public sphere, with particu- tent since the final years of the past century has lar attention to gender. Empirically, the program been branded by some media scholars as a triviali- aims to cast light on the manners in which issues zation, vulgarization or tabloidization of the media and phenomena that may be ascribed to the intimate (cf. Blumler & Gurevitch 1995, Sparks & Tulloch sphere are treated (or ignored) by mass media at dif- 2000, i.a.), whereas others consider it rather a de- ferent points in time, and to explore the reasons for mocratization or popularization of the media, as is- differences noted over time. It is our ambition to in- sues, subjects and groups of people that previously tegrate theories of gender and the media in a sys- were excluded are now discussed and heard and seen tematic fashion, with a view to heightening aware- (cf. Livingstone & Lunt 1994, Thompson 1995, ness of the prevailing gender order within journal- Hartley 1996, McLaughlin 1998, i.a.). ism. We believe that our shift of focus from the These quite divergent assessments have given public to the intimate sphere, combined with an am- rise to recurrent debates on the implications of the bition to found the theories in an empirical and lon- changes in journalism. Currently, the issue of gitudinal material, has the potential both to make a tabloidization is among the most widely debated. contribution to theory and to improve our under- The term itself has been used in at least three differ- standing of an important area of human activity. ent senses in the literature (cf. Sparks 2000). In theories concerning the demarcation between the intimate and the public spheres, phenomena re- 1. as a descriptor of a change in news journalism lating to mass media are generally assigned to the overall, whereby amusement displaces serious public sphere. Media do, after all, have to do with news journalism.Tabloidization, according to publicity; they shape the public sphere, filling it this definition, has two main characteristics: 110 • less interest in politics, economics and public for the lower classes – or, democracy is the concern affairs, but more attention to sports, scandal of an elite, whereas the masses are satisfied with en- and popular entertainment; and tertainment. Which is to say, in so many words, • considerable interest in “private life” and the that the masses have abdicated from the democratic personal sphere, whether or not the individu- process in order to devote themselves to things per- als are so-called media personalities, and less sonal and private, while a (wealthy, well educated interest in political processes, economic de- and male) responsible elite minority keep democ- velopment and social change. racy afloat by participating in “public affairs”. This perspective has to do with the boundaries Confronted with empirical fact, however, such a between journalism and other media content and view proves untenable. Serious journalism need is raises the question of whether or not tabloidi- of course not restricted to the rich, the well edu- zation poses a threat to democracy. cated or the powerful. Public service radio and tele- vision have, for example, supplied the entire Swed- 2. as a descriptor of a shift in priorities within a ish people with serious news and current events given medium from news and information to- programming the greater part of the past century. ward entertainment. Public service television in There is, however, a certain risk that the multi- new, commercially dominated multichannel sys- channel system of today may result in a social tems is a prime example of this.