Nete Nørgaard Kristensen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

2026, Routledge

Cultural Journalism in the Digital Age provides the first international, book-length introduction to Western cultural journalism, a distinct type of professional journalism that has expanded and diversified significantly, particularly from the mid-20th century into the first decades of the 21st century. The book shows how cultural journalism, in response to cultural democratization, globalization, and digitalization, engages with a wide spectrum of issues – from culture understood narrowly as arts and popular culture to broader notions encompassing norms, values, and traditions. Drawing on media theoretical, historical, and sociological perspectives, as well as insights from cultural criticism and cultural sociology, the book addresses key questions, such as what characterizes cultural journalism as a research field? What are its democratic roles? What counts as “culture” in cultural journalism? What constitutes its journalistic form? And who are the professionals producing it?