Faculty Publications

"Upscale” News Audiences And The Transformation Of Labour News

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Audiences, Consumers, Labour news, News framing, Transport strikes, Working class

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Journalism Studies

Volume

9

Issue

2

First Page

178

Last Page

194

Abstract

Changing economic conditions in the second half of the 20th century led to a transformation in the discursive frame of reports about labour in US and Canadian newspapers. The article first historically documents the shift in the target market of US and Canadian newspapers from a mass audience of the working and middle class to a niche, “upscale” audience of the upper middle class. Secondly, the article critically analyses news reports of transit (e.g., rail, bus, and airline) strikes, and how the framing of those strikes dramatically switched from a pre-1970s orientation of worker struggles to a post-1970s orientation of high consumer inconvenience. The article's analysis tracks three North American newspapers: the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Toronto Star. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate how the target market of the newspaper business clearly affects the language of news. © 2008 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Department

Department of Communication Studies

Original Publication Date

1-1-2008

DOI of published version

10.1080/14616700701848204

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