The new generation of lifestyle magazine journalism in China: the professional approach

Chinese consumer journalism is a new type of journalist who has been working in Chinese lifestyle magazines since the 1990s. This study examines the elements and roles of magazine journalists’ professionalisation, and contextualizes them with the main trends of Chinese media development during the transition era.

While investigating the daily practice of consumer magazine journalism in China, by exploring the ideology and ethics behind their practices and by discussing the original connection between consumer journalism and other more ‘serious’ forms of journalism in China, the Researcher found that consumer journalists actually share the same journalistic ethics and ideology as their ‘serious’ counterparts. To avoid political retribution and commercial pressure, consumer journalists have reoriented the multiple functions of journalism to present their social role as an ‘information vehicle’, ‘serving the rising class’, with ‘independence from media ownership and commercial forces’ and ‘contributing to culture and traditional society’.

The elements involved in this new genre of journalism include financial and operational autonomy from the state, and editorial independence from their international parent magazine companies. Moreover, this genre of journalism shows a trend towards a combination of the internationalist, consumerist and cosmopolitan, unlike other journalism in China.