Bashed at first sight: the experiences and coping strategies of reality-TV stars confronted with celebrity bashing

ABSTRACT

Reality-TV stars are oftentimes confronted with harsh and insulting comments, a phenomenon known as online celebrity bashing. Existing research on celebrity bashing focused especially on bystanders and perpetrators of this phenomenon and not on the victims. This study aimed to enrich the knowledge on celebrity bashing by interviewing reality-TV stars about their experience and coping with this practise. A total of 13 interviews (N = 13) were conducted among the contestants and experts (participants’ guides through the experiment) across three seasons of a popular Flemish reality-TV programme. The results indicated that all participants had been confronted with bashing comments from the audience during and after broadcasting, with some of them facing quite intense experiences. The participants pointed to the responsibility of the production team, journalists and society in general, for stimulating such bashing comments. Online celebrity bashing generated negative and uncomfortable feelings. Nearly all participants avoided responding to the comments, but mostly opted for cognitive coping strategies, such as relativizing the situation. The results of this study are relevant for prevention and intervention strategies aimed to reduce celebrity bashing practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Celebrity bashing
• reality-TV
• celetoid
• coping strategies
• cyberbullying

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds Universiteit Antwerpen (BOF) [BOF DOC PRO 31932].

Notes on contributors

Gaëlle Ouvrein

Gaëlle Ouvrein (MA) obtained her Ph.D. at the University of Antwerp, research group MIOS (Media and ICT in Organisations and Society). Her research concentrates on the influence of negative celebrity news on adolescents’ online behaviours towards celebrities and towards peers.

Lara Hallam

Lara Hallam graduated at the KU Leuven in 2013, and is currently a Ph.D. student in social sciences and works as a T.A. at the Department of Communication studies at the University of Antwerp. Her main field of interest is online dating and how individuals develop interpersonal relationships through an online intermediary.

Charlotte J. S. De Backer

Charlotte J. S. De Backer is Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Antwerp (Belgium). She is also a member of MIOS (Media, ICT, and Interpersonal Relations In Organisations and Society), and her current research areas are gossip research, celebrity studies and social food studies.

Heidi Vandebosch

Heidi Vandebosch is Professor at the Department of Communication Studies of the University of Antwerp (Belgium). Her research focusses on cyberbullying amongst children and adolescents (prevalence, profiles of bullies/victims, impact, and evidence-based interventions). She is also a member of MIOS (Media, ICT, and Interpersonal Relations In Organisations and Society).