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Celebrity and tabloidization

Offentliggjort 10/31/2001, senest redigeret 11/25/2004

Differences in importance of celebrity as news value

It is obvious that celebrity is an important news value for weekly magazines which base their publications on tv-listings and news about celebrities. But to what extent is celebrity an important news value for other types of media too? And how does celebrity news contribute to processes of tabloidization?

The figure below is based on data derived by taking all celebrity news in the chosen media from one week’s editions as a percentage of the total number of news stories in those media during that week.

The frequency of celebrity news differed widely depending on the value attached to celebrity by the different media types.

The two newest celebrity magazines in Denmark, Her og Nu and Kig Ind, rely almost solely on celebrity stories whereas the two older ones, Billed-Bladet and Se og H�r, also include stories which engage the curiosity of readers (a blue dog), involve them in the unusual fate of a non-celebrity (woman gave birth to siamese twins) or a round-up of dramatic world events.

With 6-10 percent, celebrity is one of many important news values for popular newspapers. In the words of Kristian Lund, editor-in-chief of B.T., popular newspapers aim to bring people ”the stories that everybody talks about” and one day that might be the birth of a son to supermodel Helena Christensen and the next day it might be a train crash.

Celebrity is also a news value for broadsheet papers with a self-professed serious news agenda but it is not a very important one. Celebrity stories do appear but are dwarfed by many other types of content.

And finally, during the week of observation there was only four very short celebrity news items on public service television news cast which made it pointless to work out a percentage for their frequency.

Celebrity and tabloidization
The figure above does, however, not tell the whole story about the importance of celebrity news to changes in the current practice of journalism in Denmark.

Celebrity news belong to a group of news stories which media researcher Stig Hjarvard has labelled tabloid news. Our case studies on the Robinson Expedition and the birth of a new Danish prince show how celebrity news coverage has contributed to a tabloidization process in popular news papers as well as in broadsheet papers and public service news broadcasting.

Tabloidization has long been shorthand for a process of decline in the standards of news media. In the context of our study, however, tabloidization is discussed more neutrally as a tool to identify changes in journalistic work routines.

Media researcher Colin Sparks has defined tabloidization as a process whereby the share of stories about economic and political affairs is gradually reduced and where journalists come to rely more and more on the personal and individual experiences of interview persons as the main source for reporting and discuss.

Our study adds a couple of further dimensions to that understanding of tabloidization.

Real and constructed realities
Looking at the coverage of the reality tv-series, The Robinson Expedition, it became apparent that journalists particularly at celebrity magazines and popular newspapers were not only instrumental in turning programme participants into semi-celebrities but also engaged with the series as if it was reality rather than a construction.

It is of course commonplace to cover constructed realities such as films and tv-series but normally it happens at a certain distance where journalists acknowledge the fictional element.

But in this case distinctions between the real reality and constructed reality became incredibly blurred in a number of ways:

Descriptions of events and emotions on the island were presented side by side with stories about the lives participants were leading back in Denmark at the time of the broadcasting of the programmes.

Participants became known by nicknames derived from their behaviour on the island.

Stories about a participant’s reaction to being sent away from the island which took place during recording in early summer could easily command a front page in November when the show was broadcast, and the next day the front page could be devoted to a minister resigning.

Journalists and media were also more than happy to participate in the construction of a Robinson reality by for instance facilitating phone-in sessions where audiences could speak directly with participants in the series.

It all contributed to a sense that what happened on the island was real and not an interesting social experiment conducted at the request of television producers.

The ”real” reality which journalists responded to was of course that massive numbers of viewers had a real emotional experience through their involvement with the series. Danish focus group research from research institute AC Nielsen/AIM has shown that audiences do not worry that the reality they are introduced to on television is constructed as long as it is entertaining.

But from a journalistic point of view it must be considered part of a tabloidization process when journalists in follow-up coverage to a tv-series do not distinguish between real events and tv-constructed reality - when a tear shed in Robinson is just as authentic and often more intensely reported than a tear shed by a mother who has lost a son in a real-life earthquake.

Tabloidization in spots
The Robinson Expedition was never reported in a tabloid fashion in Danish broadsheets and public service television news casts. Not because these media never do tabloid style reporting but it appears that certain conditions have to be met before it happens. The Robinson Expedition did not fulfill these criteria but another event in the late summer and fall of 1999 did: The birth of a son to prince Joachim and princess Alexandra.

This was an important event on any media scale and all media surveyed covered it intensively.

For broadsheet newspapers and public service television, the tabloid elements were most evident in the style of presentation, the choice of topics from the private sphere, and the reliance on interviews which emphasized the personal experience of the event ranging from the royal parents themselves to people in the street.

Emotions – national as well as personal – were at the core of the coverage and journalists on tv and broadsheet newspapers dispensed with their usual critical approach to coverage and presented the news in positive and emotional language.

The style and amount of prince-related coverage in broadsheet papers and tv news casts contrast sharply with the data about celebrity news coverage from an ordinary week. And it points to a key issue in understanding tabloidization processes in such media.

Here tabloidization can happen in spots around particularly important issues with an emotional bearing on the nation state such as events in the royal family or Danes winning international championships in sports. National importance serves as an underlying frame and news value which seem to legitimise tabloid style reporting in media which normally frown upon such practices.

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