Celebrity, media, and audiences: Social and Cultural Meaning in Contemporary Western Societies

Celebrities are omnipresent in contemporary Western societies and audiences are continuously faced with them. However, there is a lack of audience research within celebrity studies. This is where Nathalie Claessens (Communication Studies, University of Antwerp) wants her PhD to be a contribution, as it examines the social and cultural meaning of celebrity in contemporary Western societies.;In the PhD, she addresses an interesting academic debate where, on the one hand, scholars consider celebrities to be superficial commodities, while, on the other hand, celebrities are believed to fulfill important social and cultural roles. The former state that capitalist consumer culture creates celebrities to distract the audience from real societal problems. The latter present celebrities as fulfilling a variety of relevant social and cultural roles in society, such as a source for social interaction, a lead into moral or social discussions, and a form of (para-)social companionship. This PhD examines this debate by means of six empirical studies. The first three studies combine textual and audience research and analyze both celebrity news coverage and the accompanying audience reactions, guided by the principles of framing research. The last three studies focus on the audience by means of an online survey for the general adult population as well as individual and focus group interviews with nursing home residents.;As validated by the studies, celebrity can be defined as a well-known, mediated persona, constructed within the celebrity apparatus (consisting of a famous person, the entourage, media, and audiences), whose private and "real" personae attract at least as much attention as their professional activities for both media and audiences. The studies show that celebrities can function as commodities -- trivial distractions from real issues -- with regard to societal and public themes, but that they fulfill important social and cultural functions with regard to private themes. Indeed, celebrity can promote social interaction and help meaning-making processes by facilitating discussions of moral or social themes in the personal or private sphere. Celebrities can also be a form of social companionship, by means of parasocial relationships. Finally, celebrities can be an aide-memoire and stimulate reminiscence in the nursing home.