De-celebrification: beyond the scandalous

ABSTRACT

In this article, we propose de-celebrification as a term in celebrity studies to designate celebrities losing legitimacy to inhabit the public role and possess the formal and symbolic power formerly attached to their celebrity status. De-celebrification does not refer to celebrities acting scandalously, as scandalous performances often play out within the confines of celebrification. By contrast, de-celebrification is occasioned by transgressions so serious that celebrification is eroded. In recent years, social media genres have rendered de-celebrified individuals visible in new ways. Media users have come to play an active role in the process of de-celebrification, as they reflect and contribute to the visual deconstruction of celebrities’ public image and visibility. Critical, playful and humorous internet memes constitute a central case in point. To illustrate our arguments, we engage analytically with internet memes generated in relation to two recent cases of de-celebrification: Bill Cosby and Kevin Spacey.

KEYWORDS:

• Bill Cosby
• celebrification
• de-celebrification
• Kevin Spacey
• memes
• scandals

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Independent Research Fund Denmark, From Ivory Tower to Twitter: Rethinking the Cultural Critic in Contemporary Media Culture, grant: DFF – 4180-00082 and the Velux Foundation, Images of Conflict, Conflicting Images, grant: 00013143.

Notes on contributors

Mette Mortensen

Mette Mortensen, PhD, Professor and Deputy Head for Research at the Department of Communication, University of Copenhagen. She is the Principal Investigator of the research project ‘Images of Conflict, Conflicting Images’ (2017–2021) funded by the Velux foundation. She is the author or editor of eight books, along with six special issues, and has published numerous articles in international journals such as Journalism Practice; Information, Communication & Society; Media, Culture & Society; Convergence. The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies and International Journal of Cultural Studies. Moreover, she is an editor of Nordic Journal of Media Studies and on the editorial boards of several journals and book series.

Nete Nørgaard Kristensen

Nete Nørgaard Kristensen, PhD, Professor at Department of Communication, University of Copenhagen, where she serves as head of Section of Media Studies. She is the Principal Investigator of the research project ‘From Ivory Tower to Twitter: Rethinking the Cultural Critic in Contemporary Media Culture’ (2015–2019), funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark, and is Danish partner and WP-leader in the Horizon2020-project INVENT (2020–2023). She is the author and editor of ten books and special issues, and has published numerous articles in international journals such as Communication, Culture & Critique, Digital Journalism, Journalism, Journalism Practice, Journalism Studies, Sociology Compass, Television & New Media.