The quality of life as a social and editorial construct: news demands and the historic configuration of service journalism in magazines

There is a prominent subject in contemporaryjournalism. A growing set of stories deal, underthe rubric of “services”, with the issue of quality oflife, discussing the well-being in current societies.Facing this context, this article aims at reflectingon this topic through the lenses of magazine journalism.The paper sheds light on the way this typeof information simultaneously responds to certainsocial demands and nurtures them. The discussionaddresses historical questions and focuses on thedialogue between social issues and journalistic production,thus disclosing features of the magazine.It conceives of magazines as a specific medium ofcommunication, which elaborates, through segmentedpublications, an editorial construct in consonancewith a contemporary model of well-being.