Call for Papers

Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism Special issue on

Celebrity News: Production, Content and Consumption

Guest editors:

Annik Dubied (annik.dubied@unige.ch) & Thomas Hanitzsch (hanitzsch@ifkw.lmu.de)

Submission deadline:

April 1, 2011 (abstracts) and October 1, 2011 (completed papers)

Celebrity news has been around for one century. With the rise of the film industries and the development of a mass press in the early 20th century, the private lives of stars were increasingly exposed to the wider public. Today, celebrity content has become fundamental to the media. About 2.5 billion people followed Princess Diana’s public funeral on television in 200 countries, making it the most watched event in human history.

In one of the major shifts in contemporary journalism, celebrity news – once confined to a specific array of print and television outlets – has developed into a category of content that can be found right across all kinds of media channels. Inherently tailored to a media logic that emphasizes the sensational and spectacular, it feeds well into current trends of commercialization and tabloidization of media content. After its rise to industry respectability, celebrity news has proved its capacity to attract attention and to drive consumption. Moreover, the “rising tide of celebrity” has brought about a “celebrity culture”, and with it a erosion of the public/private boundary.

The long history of celebrity content notwithstanding, the study of stars, celebrities and fame has only slowly become an accepted part of the academy. Even today it still remains to be a contentious topic, and it may be for this reason that the mainstream of journalism research has rather tended to stray away from celebrity news.

This special issue of Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism therefore intends to provide a venue for the theoretical, critical and empirical engagement with celebrity news in both national and international contexts. Submissions from all theoretical and methodological perspectives are welcome. Papers may focus on the production, content and consumption of celebrity news, as well as on causes and consequences of celebrity news in contemporary culture. The following, non-exhaustive list is meant as suggestions of potential areas for individual papers:

• historical patterns of celebrity reporting
• longitudinal studies of change in celebrity news
• social and cultural functions of celebrity news
• the political economy of celebrity reporting
• professional views of celebrity reporters
• structures of celebrity news production
• the status of celebrity content in the news in general (e.g. in terms of its legitimacy, accuracy, and newsworthiness)
• the discursive and visual construction of celebrities in the news
• changes in journalism practices and identities due to the rise of celebrity news
• forms of celebrity news consumption
• psychological effects of celebrity news (e.g. celebrity endorsement in election coverage)
• comparative studies of celebrity news and reporting

Prospective authors should submit an abstract of approximately 250 words by email to Annik Dubied (annik.dubied@unige.ch) and Thomas Hanitzsch (hanitzsch@ifkw.lmu.de) by April 1, 2011. A selection of authors will be invited to submit a full paper according to the journal’s Notes for Contributors. Acceptance of the abstract does not guarantee publication, given that all papers will be subjected to peer review.