HEJ 231 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Robert Durst, Moral Panic, Elizabeth Hurley
30 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Journalism week 7: Celebrities
Do we like celebrities, do celebrities influence because we relate to them:
- Carrie Bikmore: down-to-earth approach to advertising
oThis product works for me, though I don’t know much about it
- Sarah Jessica Parker:
- Both are trying to show an elevated sense of ourselves
Intertextual ads:
- metanarrative: part of celebrities history, as well as the text history
- ads might draw upon existing knowledge we have of a celebrity, to sell their
product
- eluding to sex-tapes in the smart water ad
oconstruction of celebrity through narrative
orelies on
oinfluencing us because of reliance on existing knowledge of the
celebrity
oad plays on how Jennifer is projected in the media
Celebrity Scandal:
- ‘function as familiar strangers’
- they have to be unattainable in a certain way (Gitlin 2002)
- Referencing the on and off screen: referencing the entire metanarrative
ocelebrity image and the brand identity
oeg. Rachel character, hair, no babies, celebrity
Celebrity scandal informs our understanding about ‘the nature of stardom and the
relationship of celebrity’
- tabloid is coming across to more traditional hard news
- how do celebrities spin scandal in a way to promote their brand
- ‘therapeutive metanarrative’
- Poor parental decisions:
oUniversally declared as something that is bad: no one will stand up for
this
oTies into greater story of despair or loss of control
oPlays to danger, but also relies on an understanding of the celebrity
history: eg. Michael Jackson being mentally unstable
Universally criticized
Metanarrative behind this is that Michael and children are not a
good combination, and this plays on his un-preparedness for
children, not being fit to raise children
- Stars behaving badly:
oWinona rider, Lohan, Justin Beiber
oInstagram photos are framed by the media as if miley is hiding this
illicit things, even though she is choosing to post them in public
oCreates a narrative of youth gone bad, we as a culture allow this to
happen, we are being invited to judge
- Wardrobe malfunctions:
oIs it a way to get more publicity
oNews papers The Age etc. publishing it
oJennifer Hawkins
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
oWays for us to use celebrities to explore ideas of embarrassment
oSeeing a celebrity as falling
- Secret affairs made public:
oMonica Lewinski and Bill Clinton
Shows how celebrity change peoples lives, Monica trouble
moving on
This was one of the first online breaks of news
- High Grant and Divine Brown:
oFoppish English image, nice guy
oThrew spanner into how we thought he was
oIf Hugh could anyone could
o‘Shy and reserved Englishman was thrown into crisis by public
behaviour’
o‘also violated normative behaviour’
odivine became an accidental celebrity:
plays herself in a movie, bio pic, Judge Judy
still making headlines and being interviewed, still think this as
important
otheir relationship with liz hurley called into question
they did break up from this
o‘how do we incorporate this information into their constructed
image…’
o‘public confession has become prominent part’
owe want to hear these things, but we also don’t like hearing it
ohugh was one of the first celebrities to publically apologies
many occasions now where people are no forgiven
revolutionary for the time
reconstructing image to what it was before the scandal
working back convincingly to original image
oscandal ‘is a forced revolution’
ohe is trying to claiming ‘truth back’, despite a truw truth being revealed
odiscussion about the topic in the public sphere, debate whether we
should like the celebrity or not
- we come down hard on celeb because we think why can they get away with
these things
- Reese withaspoon:
oPulled the don’t you know who I am
oWent into hiding, avoided the controversy, then answered questions
regarding the incident with bringing touches of her image
- Might be okay with it but if we feel they aren’t being honest we don’t like it
- We want to feel like we know the authentic self, we feel we know enough
about them to be able to expect their behavioiur
oScandals act as ruptures in the metanarratives we have of them and we
feel betrayed
oScandals bring us together as audiences (Lumby)
-Tabloid:
oSpectacle
oCentre of the tabloid network
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Do we like celebrities, do celebrities influence because we relate to them: Carrie bikmore: down-to-earth approach to advertising: this product works for me, though i don"t know much about it. Both are trying to show an elevated sense of ourselves. Function as familiar strangers" they have to be unattainable in a certain way (gitlin 2002) Referencing the on and off screen: referencing the entire metanarrative: celebrity image and the brand identity, eg. rachel character, hair, no babies, celebrity. Celebrity scandal informs our understanding about the nature of stardom and the relationship of celebrity" tabloid is coming across to more traditional hard news how do celebrities spin scandal in a way to promote their brand. Metanarrative behind this is that michael and children are not a good combination, and this plays on his un-preparedness for children, not being fit to raise children.
