Journalism and Celebrity

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.

Dr Bethany Usher worked as a journalist for regional and then national tabloid newspapers before quitting industry and speaking out about some of the practices she encountered. She now leads postgraduate journalism provision at Newcastle University where her recent work has focused on the intercommunications between journalism, celebrity and politics and their societal and democratic impacts.

Chapters: 1. Introduction 2. Journalism and Celebrity during the Consumer Revolution and Bourgeois Public Sphere 3. Celebrity and the New Journalism 4. Acts of Consecration and Desecration: Journalism and 20th Century Stardoms 5. Tabloids, Television and the Neoliberal Soap Opera 6. The Story of the 21st Century: Networked Hyperconsumerism and Neopopulism and Applications of Journalism and Celebrity 7. Conclusion: What to do?