The state of cultural journalism has been a subject of discussion within journalism research for a long period of time. The core of the discussion is that cultural journalism differs from journalism in many ways, which creates friction. Some researchers illustrate this friction as a battle between two separate paradigms – the journalistic paradigm and the aestethic paradigm – and their values. The aesthetic paradigm strives for values such as subjectivity, pedagogicality and expertise, while the journalistic paradigm focuses on effectivity, objectivity and ethics. The research concerning this has mostly been aimed at literature and music, but not film to the same extent. This study aimed to fill that gap by investigating the changes within swedish film criticism during the time between the late ‘90s and today. The platforms that we analysed are Moviezine, Barometern and Aftonbladet and the film reviews from them were analysed from the perspective of language, method of production and the values of the two paradigms. The study showed that these three platforms took their own paths; some of them have moved towards the aesthetic paradigm, while others have gone in the opposite direction. 2016 is the most divisive year of the analysed years.

The aim of this bachelor thesis was to examine how cultural art journalistic critique manifests on different digital platforms today. I chose to focus on film criticism as it not only tells a story about the movies but also about the society. The bachelor thesis also aims to examine if there are any differences in how amateurs and professional journalists frames film criticism and in extension the society. The research questions examined were:How are the reviews composition and content arranged? How does the reviews rhetoric get constructed? How do the writers approach appraisements in their texts and how do these get framed? Do the texts have an inclination towards the aesthetic or the journalistic paradigm? I used Hulténs mass media rhetoric analysis which is a form of qualitative media content analysis in order to find differences and similarities in the texts. By closely examining the reviews, I found that references to popular culture were of great significance in the field of journalistic film criticism. They do not only show the journalists habitus but also their position in the field and the fields doxa. The study shows that the amateurs often emulates and are inspired by the professional journalists. The amateurs also largely depend on the aesthetic paradigm whilst the professionals strives for an equiponderant relation to both paradigms. My conclusion is that the amateurs compose a heterodox rebellion towards the current doxa on the field and that the professionals reigns the field with their knowledge and their complex and critical portrayal of movies and the society.