ABSTRACT

This insightful book traces the development of journalism and celebrity and their relationship to and influence on political and social spheres from the beginnings of capitalist democracy in the 18th century to the present day.

Journalism and Celebrity provides the first account of its kind, revealing the people, places, platforms, and production practices that created celebrity journalism culture, following its origins in the London-based press to its reinvention by the American mass media. Through a transdisciplinary approach to theory and method, this book argues that those who place celebrity in binary to what journalism should be often miss the importance of their mutual dependency in making our societies what they are.

Including historical and contemporary case studies from the UK and US, this book is excellent reading for journalism, communication, media studies, and history students, as well as scholars in the fields of journalism, celebrity, cultural studies and political communication.

chapter 1|19 pages

Introduction

chapter 3|32 pages

Celebrity and the New Journalism

chapter 4|31 pages

Acts of consecration and desecration

Journalism and 20th-century stardoms

chapter 6|31 pages

The story of the 21st century

Hyperconsumerism, neopopulism and the networked applications of journalism and celebrity

chapter 7|15 pages

Conclusion

What’s to be done?