Appendix A: List of articles and complete analysis 12
Appendix B: Coding Scheme 18
2
, Abstract:
This quantitative research investigates the contribution of celebrity news to the public
sphere by examining its content. This has been done with the use of a framing
analysis in which the five common used frames in the news as identified by Semetko
& Valkenburg (2000) are applied to celebrity news. The analysis of the 60 articles I
collected showed that most celebrity news in the newspapers include a human
interest frame. However there were also some articles found in which other frames
were used, for instance the economic frame and moral frame. This suggests that
celebrity news can also be used to discuss economic and moral issues and therefore
this research proves that celebrity news can contribute to the public sphere.
1. Introduction:
During the last weekend of August 2014 intimate photos of 101 celebrities – including
stars like Kate Upton and Jennifer Lawrence – were spread by an anonymous hacker
on the internet. This event, known as ‘celebgate’ was widely covered in the media.
Even quality newspapers in the Netherlands, like De NRC wrote about this. The
same happened when George Clooney got married at the end of September 2014.
These recent examples are two examples which illustrate that celebrity news has
become more important in traditional media. Previous research has already stated
that there is a growing shift of celebrity news in the media (McNamara, 2011; p. 240).
However this trend is not that recent. When Harcup and O’Neil (2001) investigates
which characteristics an event should include to be selected in the news coverage,
they mentioned the inclusion of a celebrity. This suggests that when something
happens and a celebrity is included, this event has a higher chance that it will be
covered in the news.
Nevertheless, most of the researches on celebrity news focuses on the definition and
the functions of a celebrity (Conboy, 2014; Turner, 2004; Lautherbach, 2005).
However, less research has been done about the content of celebrity news (Van Den
Bluck & Claessens) and about the role celebrity news provides in our public sphere.
To fulfill this gap, this quantitative research investigates the contents of celebrity news
from four different Dutch newspapers, namely De Telegraaf, Het AD, De Volkskrant
and De NRC with the use of a framing analysis. Therefore the aim of this research is
to describe the contribution of celebrity news in the public sphere.
3. Literature Review: Celebrity News, Framing and the
Public Sphere
Previous researchers tend to be skeptical about the importance of a celebrity in our
society. As Boorstin (1961: p.58) stated: “The celebrity is a person who is well-known
for their well-knownness.” Despite of the low status of a celebrity, researchers
acknowledge that celebrity news has increased in our media. Marshall (2010) states
that this is due to the rise of globalization and social network sites, which allow us to
exchange more information about celebrities and contribute in fandoms around them
(Grossberg, 1992; Meyers, 2012). Therefore he states that there is also a shift in
traditional media, like newspapers.
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