Tabloid Journalism and Celebrity Culture
Why does celebrity journalism exist?
Our obsession with scandal, exclusives and sensationalism has caused tabloid journalism to become more popular in today’s society. Tabloid journalism refers to a style of journalism that is focused on human interest, scandal, entertainment and celebrity. These topics are defined as ‘soft’ news; news stories that might be of interest or hold entertainment value.
The term ‘tabloidisation’ is a process through which the type of journalism focused with soft news expands to other sections of the media, including television, online, and social media.
Celebrities — “famous individuals that are highly visible in the media, often emerging from the entertainment industries, and whose private lives attract equal or greater attention than their professional lives” (Farrell, 2013) — are not a recent or modern phenomenon. There have always been famous people.
However, the nature of fame and the systems that create and maintain an individual’s fame have changed dramatically over time. A quick glance over the newsstand, flick through the TV channels, surf on the internet or scroll on social media, in today’s society, reveals the prominence of celebrity in the media.
Celebrity journalism centres on the lives of film, TV and pop stars, or those who, in the words of Daniel Boorstin, are simply “well known for their well knownness” (Boorstin, 2006).
Celebrity journalism, as we know it, began in The New Yorker in 1957, when Truman Capote was commissioned to profile film star, Marlon Brando. During the interview Brando opened up and shared intimate details regarding his family, “resulting in a revolutionary piece like no other” (McClintok, 2014).
The media and celebrities have a significant relationship, they depend on each other for their existence. Celebrities will willingly seek media exposure to promote their work or to boost their profiles. And the media, are aware of the commercial benefits of feeding the public’s appetite for celebrity stories and photographs. With this in mind, celebrity journalism works to the advantage of both sides. Celebrities are happy with the coverage and the media are happy to be meeting the needs of their readers.
“Media representation is the cement that creates the popularity of a certain person as it is how the ‘celebrity’ reaches the attention of the public’s eye. With this sort of power that the media industry has, they are capable of building up a person in a positive eye as well as capable of crushing a celebrities reputation through just one story” — Power 2016.
The rise of celebrity journalism, in recent decades, has created a variety of potential opportunities but also challenges for journalists.
The Opportunities of Celebrity Journalism
While tabloidisation may be considered trivial in its style and content, it is argued that soft news topics and celebrity allow the participation of citizens. So from this perspective, tabloidisation represents an opening up of the platforms of debate to the wider populace beyond traditional elites. Therefore, both tabloidisation and celebrity can be seen as serving some form of democratic function.
Celebrity journalism also represents an opportunity for journalists to discuss social, political or economic issues in a way that engages people who might otherwise be uninterested in such topics. In short, journalists work with celebrities to engage a wider audience.
For example, campaigner and documentary filmmaker Jeremy Gilley struggled for years to gain media attention for his peace campaign until he enlisted celebrities. Celebrities are a great interest to audiences but a challenge for journalists is navigating a path between using the social cause to focus on celebrity and using celebrity to focus on the cause.
As celebrities become increasingly attached to political events and causes there has become an opportunity for journalists to frame stories in terms of their associations with celebrities. The personalisation of news stories in these ways is commonly used within journalistic practice and it presents opportunities to frame stories in a way that’s relatable to readers.
However, this questions audience’s understanding of events when framed in this way and whether celebrity dominates the frame at the expense of other aspects of the story which becomes a key challenge to the responsibility of journalists.
The Challenges of Celebrity Journalism
Traditional journalism is built from objective and impartial facts in the public interest, whereas celebrity journalism focuses on emotion and private interest, primarily for entertainment. This assumes that the coverage of celebrities does not match the higher set of ideals associated with traditional journalism. In short, tabloidization denotes a decline of traditional journalistic values and a ‘dumbing down’.
“Journalism was placing the trivial before the weighty, resulting in news media that were more concerned with stories which interest the public than stories that are within the public interest” — Franklin 1997.
Soft news is assumed to be a key factor in this professional decline. Articles in magazines, interviews on television shows, websites and posts on social media devoted to celebrity stories are created at the expense of debates concerning important social or political issues. “Essentially, celebrity comes to dominate the media simply because it is catering to public tastes” (Williamson, 2012).
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