Lifestyle journalism is a non-traditional popular field of journalism which is often considered trivial because of its close links to commercial interests and has frequently been defined in opposition to the normative ideal of journalism. It is often seen as a combination of journalistic elements such as soft news, service journalism, consumer journalism, popular journalism, or even cultural journalism. In a sense, it does provide a service to readers by publishing advice, reviews, and advertisements, which are common tools in lifestyle journalism. In this regard, it aims to directly address readers, viewers or users as individuals making consumer choices. Many characterizations of this field also share a close connection with public relations, with lifestyle journalists often accused of fulfilling market mandates.
Its key themes and areas are travel, music, food, fashion, entertainment, leisure, arts, gardening etc. Lifestyle journalism is therefore an umbrella term covering not only these topics, but also specific genres or modes of addressing the audience. In line with its typical themes, lifestyle journalism often uses entertainment formats and is therefore often perceived as a complement to breaking news, political news, and news about social and cultural conflicts.
Consequently, the status and legitimacy of lifestyle journalism within journalism is controversial and challenged by new actors (bloggers, vloggers, micro-vloggers, influencers) involved in lifestyle-related topics in digital media.
