Celebrity Suicide and the Search for the Moral High Ground: Comparing Frames in Media and Audience Discussions of the Death of a Flemish Celebrity

Gossip at one’s fingertips: Predictors of celebrity news on Twitter

“…A celebrity is a mediated persona constructed by a mediated interplay between a public persona based on public activities and a private persona based on the private life as presented to the world (Van den Bulck and Claessens, 2013a). Focusing on the dual persona of celebrities, the rise of celebrity news challenges conventional media logics, infiltrates mainstream ideology, and reshapes the assumptions of citizenship and democracy.…”

“…Despite the ubiquity and popularity of celebrity culture in social media, celebrity news on social media websites has received little academic attention. The present study builds on previous research on celebrity news on other platforms, such as gossip magazines (Barnes and Olds, 2013; McDonnell, 2011), tabloid newspapers (Gorin and Dubied, 2011), and entertainment websites (Van den Bulck and Claessens, 2013a, 2013b, 2013c), with a new focus on the predictors of celebrity news on Twitter. Furthermore, the present study responds to Turner’s (2010: 19) calls for ‘multi-factoral, conjunctural and multi-disciplinary approaches’ to celebrity studies.…”

Nursing Home Residents and Celebrities: A Tale of Morality

“…A second reason for selecting these two moral themes is that both can be addressed from a multitude of viewpoints which relate to religion, society, the human psyche, biology, among others. Further, previous research has shown that the themes of adultery (Gamson, 2001;Starn, 2011;Van den Bulck & Claessens, 2013a) and homosexuality (Bailey, 2011;Brady, 2011;Dow, 2008;Van den Bulck & Claessens, 2013b) in relationship to celebrities both evoke vivid discussions. These studies can serve as a wider framework in which to place this particular study.…”

“…Indeed, by reading about and discussing celebrities' lives, audiences are believed to make sense of their own identity and the world around them. Yet, with the exception of some case studies (e.g., Butler Breese, 2010; Van den Bulck & Claessens, 2013b), there is little empirical work on the role of celebrities in the everyday lives of general audience members and even less in the lives of older adults. While the large body of fan studies can provide some valuable insights, it is not straightforwardly useful as fan research focuses on one particular group of audience members, namely those with an intense investment in celebrities.…”

Audiences for stardom and celebrity

“…Such an approach views the famous less as figures of identification and admiration, and pays more attention 'to the ways they become constructed in language and discourse …' (Stevenson 2005, p. 160) -a framework in which discourses of judgement have become crucial. Many of the studies cited above already play this out (Hermes 1999, Lumby 2007, Feasey 2008, Allen 2011, but further examples would be Sofia Johansson's (2006) chapter on the extent to which the tabloid representation of celebrity is met with varying degrees of class ambivalence, derision and 'hate', as well as more recent studies of how audiences make moral evaluations of celebrity actions and scandals in ways which work through the boundaries of collective citizenship and social norms (Van Den Bulck and Claessens 2013a, 2013b, Eronen 2014). It may be that the impact of new technologies on audience engagements (discussed below) has rendered the diversity of responses more visible (after all, it would be problematic to assume that audiences of the classical Hollywood period merely expressed a unified adoration for stars).…”