Publication
Title
Celebrity news as hybrid journalism : an assessment of celebrity coverage in newspapers and magazines
Author
Abstract
This contribution discusses the content and characteristics of celebrity news as a hybrid news genre by means of a quantitative content analysis of a random sample from one year of celebrity news as published in two elite and two popular Flemish newspapers, and two Flemish celebrity gossip magazines. To this end, a theoretical framework is developed that combines insights from celebrity studies regarding the characteristics of the celebrity as a mediated construct with insights from research on (the decline of) journalistic quality, as well as insights from genre studies on hybridity. Different from what the literature suggests, the results indicate a certain dominance in celebrity news of the public over the private and a distinct attention to public interest next to human interest news, although results differ according to type of medium. The results also show clear indications both of original but sensationalized reporting in magazines and of a high level of churnalism in (elite) newspapers. In the conclusion, the article suggests a need to pay more attention to regular rather than exceptional celebrity news and a reconsideration of what is wrong with celebrity news as indicative of what is wrong with journalism in general, and shows that celebrity news is a hybrid genre in three different ways.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Journalism : theory, practice and criticism. - London, 2000, currens
Publication
London : 2017
ISSN
1464-8849 [print]
1741-3001 [online]
DOI
10.1177/1464884916657523
Volume/pages
18 :1 (2017) , p. 44-63
ISI
000391507300004
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Project info
Research in the field of media policy (Sabbatical).
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 12.07.2016
Last edited 09.10.2023
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