It takes two to tango: the relationship between the press and celebrities in Belgium

Abstract

The objective of this paper is twofold. The first aim is to examine the characteristics of the celebrity press in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) in comparison with the foreign celebrity press. The second aim is to characterise the interaction between local celebrities and journalists, as conflict, cooperation or negotiation. To this end, a content analysis was performed on the three Flemish celebrity magazines and leading journalists, editors and celebrities were interviewed. The results show that, first, the majority of the articles cannot be typified as 'gossip' stories and, second, most journalists and celebrities label the mutual relationship as one of cooperation and negotiation. However, as a result of market competition, Flemish celebrity journalists are increasingly pushing ethical boundaries. The paper discusses how the press can both make and break a celebrity's career. Specifically, ordinary people who rise to unexpected fame through their participation in reality shows have very limited negotiation leverage.

Joining the clash or refusing to bash? Bystanders reactions to online celebrity bashing

“…These articles also pay disproportionate attention to the (mostly female) celebrities' physical appearance and their sex and family lives (Podnieks, 2009). In regions such as Flanders, Belgium, researchers have observed mostly neutral tones in celebrity news (De Backer & Fisher, 2012;Van den Bulck, Paulussen & Bels, 2015); however, at times, journalists have created subtle forms of sensation produced by, for instance, citing quotes out of context (Van Gorp, 2014). In those regions, the causes for concern are largely concentrated on the kinds of celebrity bashing that the audience engages in (Ouvrein et al, 2017;).…”