Celebrity news as hybrid journalism: An assessment of celebrity coverage in Flemish newspapers and magazines

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 1 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.

A content analysis of teen-favored celebrities' posts on social networking sites: Implications for parasocial relationships and fame-valuation

“…Such traditional media coverage tended to focus on the professional activities of the celebrities to which gatekeepers had access. Alongside the professional, traditional media also made attempts to uncover the person behind the famous persona by revealing private issues about the celebrity (Holmes, 2005;Van den Bulck et al, 2017). Traditional paparazzi photos focused on intimate and private events in the celebrities' lives.…”

“…The depth of self-disclosure -the sharing of personal experiences, feelings, and opinionson celebrity SNS profiles is also critical as studies find that greater exposure to content on SNSs is linked with a stronger sense of intimacy and stronger feelings toward the profile owner (Chia & Poo, 2009). Despite the attempts of traditional and online media to uncover the person behind the famous persona (Holmes, 2005;Van den Bulck et al, 2017), the breadth and depth of disclosure on personal profiles on SNSs sheds light into how the celebrities themselves manage their public-private selves (Marshall, 2010). As more -and deeper -personal information about themselves is available to the celebrities themselves (As compared to other media sources), it is interesting to examine the professional-personal balance of information that they choose to present about themselves in their SNS posts.…”

A future of journalism beyond the objectivity–dialogue divide? Hybridity in the news of entrepreneurial journalists

“…Although the concept of hybridity has become established in journalism studies, its implications remain under-explored (Baym, 2017). Studies on hybridity tend to adopt a systemic view (Mellado et al, 2017), analyse hybrid values and conceptions (Ruotsalainen and Villi, 2018;Vos and Singer, 2016) or focus on hybrid 'soft news', such as celebrity journalism (Van Den Bulck et al, 2017). Empirical studies on hybrid 'hard news' are scarce (see Bødker, 2017;Hamilton, 2016).…”

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).…”