Journalistic style and style guides

Journalistic style is one of the most important but at the same time most complex aspects of journalistic work. The concept involves for example the writing style, the correctness of writing and the use of humor and abbrevations in daily practice. In this contribution we elaborate on the perceived importance of journalistic style in the eyes of not only news managers and journalists, but also news consumers. We use insights from the concept of boundary work to discuss the multiple strategies that are used to stress the importance of an adequate journalistic style, and explain how this concept also can explain the implementation of journalistic style guides in news organisations that address both general and specific rules about journalistic style.status: accepte