Taking as its vantage point Gaye Tuchman’s (1972) notion of the strategic ritual of objectivity, this article argues that there is also a strategic ritual of emotionality in journalism – an institutionalized and systematic practice of journalists infusing their reporting with emotion. To examine the strategic ritual of emotionality, the article considers Pulitzer Prize-winning articles between 1995 and 2011, taking the prize as a marker of cultural capital in the journalistic field. A coding scheme for a basic content analysis was developed on the basis of scholarly insights into journalistic narratives, as well as discourse analytic approaches associated with appraisal theory. The analysis indicates that the analyzed stories rely heavily on emotional story-telling. The strategic ritual of emotionality manifests itself in the overwhelming use of anecdotal leads, personalized story-telling and expressions of affect. Journalists ‘outsource’ emotional labor by describing the emotions of others, and drawing on sources to discuss their emotions.

This article develops the idea of an "emotional turn" in journalism studies, which has led to an increasingly nuanced investigation of the role of emotion in the production, texts and audience engagement with journalism. These developments have occurred in tandem with, and accelerated by, the emergence of digital and social media.Research on news production has shown that journalistic work has always taken emotion into consideration, shaping approaches to storytelling and presentation.However, the view of journalists as detached observers has rendered the emotional labor associated with news production invisible. Research on emotion in journalistic texts has highlighted the fact that even conventional "hard news genres" are shaped by an engagement with emotion. As studies on news audiences and emotions have shown, audiences are more likely to be emotionally engaged, recall information and take action when news stories are relatable.The affordances of digital platforms and social media have had a profound impact on the space for emotion. The expanded opportunities for participation have contributed to questioning traditional distinctions between news audiences and producers and have ushered in new and more forms of emotional expression that have spilled over into practices of news production.

This article examines the self-image of arts journalists, or journalists who work in the criticism and coverage of theater, classical music, opera and dance. It is based on interviews with 20 arts journalists in the United Kingdom, including classical music DJs, arts reviewers, arts reporters, and arts and music editors for print and broadcast media. This occupational group within journalism is worthy of study because of its distinctive professional and cultural role: while arts journalists share aspects of their professional cultures with other newsworkers, their work is intrinsically linked to the project of improving `public appreciation of the arts'. Our argument is that while many arts journalists see themselves as part of the larger professional category of `journalists', they also lay claim to an arts exceptionalism, insofar as they suggest that: (1) the ideal arts journalist is better and more extensively qualified than a conventional news reporter; (2) arts journalism is qualitatively different from news journalism; and (3) arts journalism has the responsibility of communicating the transformative nature of the arts. Drawing on such a discourse, arts journalists take on a crusading role, and describe their work as infused by a passion which is otherwise frowned upon within journalism. We also demonstrate how, within the specialist group of arts journalists, there are distinctive subcultures of freelance critics, arts reporters, and arts editors — professional categories which greatly influence these newsworkers' self-understandings.

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Against the backdrop of the new populism, this article takes a closer look at the role of anger in media coverage of Trump’s inauguration. The article suggests that Trump’s rise heralds a shift in prevailing ‘emotional regime’ towards what I will refer to as ‘angry populism’. Angry populism – embodied by Trump – is based on a rhetoric which seeks broad appeal through the deliberate expression of anger. Adopted as an interpretive framework in media coverage, it suggests that the anger of Trump, his supporters and his opponents is both salient and relevant to political life.