The visualization of cultural journalism has changed in Danish printed newspapers during the 20th century. The alternations reflect structural transformations of the Danish media system – from a political party press at the turn of the 20th century, through an omnibus press during most of the 20th century, to commercial media institutions with differentiated media- cultural profiles at the turn of the 21st century.
Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the long-term changes in the form and content of Danish cultural journalism, from 1890 to 2008, point to an increasing prominence and complexity of visual and graphic elements in relation to cultural news items. By the end of the 20th century, the visual dimension of cultural journalism in some cases tended to overpower the written word and blur the boundaries not only between individual stories. More importantly, the visual stories themselves became cultural products for consumers, which could out-compete the cultural experiences (e.g., visits to an art exhibit) that the stories describe.
A content analysis of two national morning papers, a tabloid newspaper, and a free-of-charge newspaper points to ever greater distinction among and differentiation between image strategies and mappings of content by the types of newspapers. In an ever increasing competitive media market, the cultural content and its visual dimension came to dominate the profile of the newspapers. Discussions of the changing image of news is highly relevant to cultural journalism, where the visual dimension provides not only documentation (if at all) but also (or rather) visual and cultural experiences for the public.