The fine line between journalism and advertising : A critical discourse study of ELLE.se’s use of advertorials and click-based content and an evolving hybrid genre

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to explore the expressions of a commercialising fashion journalistic genre by focusing on how ELLE.se, Sweden’s biggest online fashion platform, use advertorials and click-based content. This is investigated through three research questions focusing on what journalistic and marketing discourses that are apparent in advertorials and click-based material; what blend of genres that are seen in different kinds of text commercial on ELLE.se and what discursive conflicts between journalistic ideals and commercial pressure are seen in the production of advertorial content. Theories used in the study are marketisation of public discourse together with Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the commercialisation of news and lastly genres, also focusing on fashion journalism as a genre. In order to explore the expressions a discursive analysis is used on advertorials and click- based material on ELLE.se whilst qualitative interviews with respondents producing the content are conducted to investigate the third research question. The results of the study show that numerous journalistic and marketing discourses are apparent in advertorials and click- based material, with personification through conversational discourse, the pursuit of happiness by portraying the reader as an imperfect person and a friendly brand through corporate advertising as three recurrent themes. A majority of the text commercial at ELLE.se balances between editorial content and advertisement, demonstrating many aspects of an evolving hybrid genre. Lastly, respondents in the qualitative interviews identify digitalisation, loss of journalistic quality and decreased reliability as three discursive conflicts between journalistic ideals and commercial pressure. The result stresses how the impact of commercialism and how journalistic and promotional discourses are continuously blended, showing aspects of ongoing hybridisation and converging genres.