Studying celebrity news

Abstract

Celebrity news and the dark planet of contemporary journalismThere was a time when news coverage of celebrities was mostly confined to tabloids, distinctive magazines and special sections of newspapers. Today, celebrity news is an endemic phenomenon; it has found its place across the entire media spectrum where it proved its capacity to attract a wide range of publics and to drive consumption (Turner, 2010). Celebrity coverage has become omnipresent and pervasive even to the extent that it constitutes a new normality in the contemporary media world.The increasing presence of celebrity news has often been subjected to critical accounts of the media and cultural industries. Public consciousness tends to perceive celebrity coverage in terms of a dirty pleasure of sensationalist tabloid reporters who capitalize on exposing the private lives of the famous. It is considered by many to be the 'dark planet' of contemporary journalism. As a symptom of tabloidization it is seen as contributing to the dumbing down of news content and journalistic quality (Franklin, 1997). Celebrity news may well distract public attention from the important issues in public conversation, diverting public interest from the issues that really matter (Couldry et al., 2007;Postman, 1985). In this issue, Martin Conboy warns that such a cultural flattening may have a broad, if apolitical, democratic potential.The consequences of the 'discursive bleeding of celebrity discourse' (P. David Marshall, in this issue) into the political context might also be more direct. In his contribution to this special issue, Jason Wilson argues that the infiltration of the political sphere by the celebrity logic raises questions about reforming political leadership and modes of democracy in an environment where significant proportions of the population have tuned out from official politics. These questions bear enormous relevance across contemporary democracies.

Churnalism, Cultural (Inter)Mediation and Sourcing in Cultural Journalism

“…Turner and Orange 2013). Consequently, studies have emerged that look more closely at specialised but also hybrid types of journalism, such as arts journalism (Harries and Wahl-Jorgensen 2007;Janssen, Kuipers, and Verboord 2008;Sarrimo 2016;Verboord and Janssen 2015), cultural journalism (Golin and Cardoso 2009;Jaakkola 2015;Kristensen and From 2015a), lifestyle journalism (Hanusch 2012;Kristensen and From 2012) and celebrity journalism (Dubied and Hanitzsch 2014;Van den Bulck, Paulussen, and Bels 2016). This newer research agenda that studies these topics as specialised types of journalism with their own norms and routines can be seen as a counter-trend to the inclination towards studying "the most sacred part of journalism": political journalism (Neveu 2002, 23).…”

News values: a review of academic literature/Valores noticiosos: una revisión de la literatura académica

“…A su vez otros investigadores como Dubied & Hanitzsch (2014) creen que el valor noticioso de la celebridad tiene un fin económico, mientras que los otros usados en la práctica del periodismo poseen un componente de servicio social. Esta postura la refuta Mortensen & Jerslev (2014), para quienes la celebridad como la que promueven los fotógrafos paparazzi es paradójica, pues según ellos tiene una baja noticiabilidad en términos de conflicto y sensaciones, debido a un predominio de los excesos corporales y la transgresión a los códigos sociales o morales.…”

Public's perception of celebrities with serious illness in Hong Kong and the impact of media stories of ill celebrities on health awareness and behaviour

“…2 In this particular context Lerner believes that ill celebrities may influence individual patients in making decisions about medical treatments. 2 Moreover, celebrities provide a set of standardized lifestyles and an array of 'ready to apply options' in modern societies, 17 and cases of celebrity illness thus become a signpost or a way for the public to understand illness and treatments. 18 For example, Nancy Reagan's mastectomy led to a significant decrease in the use of breast-conserving surgery in the United States during the period of media exposure, as the general public believed that celebrities got the best medical advice.…”