In the master’s thesis we are examining the identity of fashion journalism in the light of the predominant journalistic functions that it performs. Fashion journalism as a special branch of journalism, that is not specifically defined, includes lightweight, entertainment-oriented posts as well as more pressing posts with critical reflection and social engagement. As an example of quality reporting about fashion and fashion industry, we have selected the Business of Fashion portal (or BoF). It is famous for its perception of fashion as a global and complex phenomenon. We wanted to determine what is the essential function of fashion journalism, what is the enlightenment function of journalism on the chosen case and which is their predominant function. With this, we wanted to give a critical reflection on such content and to show that the fashionable content can also be recognized as qualitative and socially relevant. A one-month analysis of BoF postings was broken down into eleven factors, which helped us to fully show the relevance of the portal. The analysis has shown, that the preliminary function of the BoF is the “unreal enlightenment” function since the majority of its content informs and educates, but does not raise socially important questions (though this type of content does appear). Resultant from the analysis, we concluded that there are some discrepancies in the understanding of the real identity of fashion journalism in our case and in the one presented in the literature, as they recognize it largely as an entertainment branch of journalism.
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