This dissertation focuses on the production and development of a conspicuous, widespread culture phenomenon in contemporary Japan, which is characterized by numerous young, mediapromoted personalities, or pop-idols, who are groomed for public consumption. The research, based on eighteen months of in-depth fieldwork in the Japanese entertainment industry, aims to contribute to the understanding of the allegorical role played by pop-idols in the creation of youth culture. Pop-idols are analyzed as personified symbols that function as vehicles of cultural production. The principal issues suggested in this research include: the criteria of popidol production; the ways in which pop-idols are produced; the perceptions of pop-idol performances by producers, performers, and consumers; the ways in which idol personalities are differentiated from each other; the ways in which pop-idol performances are distinguished from other styles or genres; and the social, cultural, political, economic, and historical roots as well as consequences of pop-idols' popularity. These issues are explored through the examination of female pop-idols. The single, most important function of pop-idols is to represent young people's fashions, customs, and lifestyles. To this end, the pop-idol industry generates a variety of styles that can provide the young audience with pathways toward appropriate adulthood. They do this within their power structure as well as their commercial interest to capitalize on adolescence - which in Japan is considered the period in which individuals are expected to explore themselves in the adult social world. The stylized promotion, practiced differently by promotion agencies that strive to merchandise pop-idol images and win public recognition, constitutes a field of symbolic contestation. The stage is thus set for an investigation of the strategies, techniques, and processes of adolescent identity formation as reified in the construction of idol personalities. This dissertation offers a contextualized account of dialogue that occurs between capitalism, particular rhetoric of self-making, and the lifestyle of consumers, mediated by pop-idols and their manufacturing agencies that function together as the cultural apparatus. The analysis developed in this dissertation hopes to provide theoretical and methodological contributions to the study of celebrities in other social, cultural, and historical settings. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

Submitted by Nadir Basilio (nadirsb@uninove.br) on 2015-07-16T16:19:01Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Carlos Affonso Sartore Salles.pdf: 1399950 bytes, checksum: 016fa56fdfd3ea7c9768206f8ed5654c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-16T16:19:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carlos Affonso Sartore Salles.pdf: 1399950 bytes, checksum: 016fa56fdfd3ea7c9768206f8ed5654c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-23 / The purpose of this study is to indicate ways for the diagnosis image of athletes and sports celebrities. It was realized a case study using the Brazilian athlete and MMA fighter Anderson Silva, taking advantage of your image notoriety inside and outside of sports, the fact of he participates in an emerging sport that generates controversial opinions, as well as recent events in his career in 2013 and 2014, which generated adverse opinions, doubts and questions about hisattitudesin the competition. To achieve the purpose, an interviews guide that addressed the issues of image management, crisis management and sports celebrities, being composed mainly by Método de Configuração de Imagem (MCI), which assisted in the disclosure of attributes that configured the image athlete object of the study. As a result, it is understood that the instrument can be used as a tool for managing the image sports personalities. / O objetivo deste trabalho é apontar caminhos para a realização do diagnóstico da imagem de atletas e celebridades esportivas. Foi realizado um estudo de caso se valendo do atleta brasileiro e lutador de MMA Anderson Silva, aproveitando-se da notoriedade de sua imagem dentro e fora dos esportes, o fato de participar de um esporte emergente e que gera opiniões controversas, assim como dos recentes acontecimentos em sua carreira nos anos de 2013 e 2014, que geraram opiniões adversas, dúvidas e questionamentos sobre a postura do atleta em competições. Para atingir o objetivo, foi utilizado um roteiro de entrevistas que abordou as temáticas da gestão de imagem, gestão de crises e celebridades esportivas, sendo composto, principalmente, pelo Método de Configuração de Imagem (MCI), que auxiliou na evidenciação de atributos que configuram a imagem do atleta objeto de estudo. Como resultado, entende-se que o instrumento utilizado pode ser utilizado como ferramenta para a gestão da imagem de personalidades esportivas.

Since Greta Thunberg started her environmental school strike in August 2018 she has become a world famous activist and has been portrayed in news media everywhere. The aim of this bachelor study has been to examine how Greta Thunberg has been portrayed in the Swedish news media through examining two daily press newspapers and two evening press newspapers. This resulted in analyzing articles in Aftonbladet, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet. By using a qualitative and a quantitative content analysis we investigated three different events connected to Greta Thunberg through published articles. During 2018 the event that started her journey, which is the school strike, was selected as one of these happenings. During 2019 we chose her UN- speech in New York, and for the last event her speech at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos was chosen. By choosing these specific events we could build a perception of what the media's portrayal of Greta Thunberg has been like during these three years. Therefore this study also aimed to answer the following research questions: - How has Greta Thunberg been portrayed in the daily press and the evening press? - Has the portrayal of Greta Thunberg changed over time? In this study we used the Framing Theory and also the protest paradigms as guidelines and we also applied von Zabern & Tulloch (2020) and Bergmann & Ossewaardes (2020) different frames. This study then led to an identification of a new framing of Greta Thunberg which we named “Speaking without speaking”, mostly consisting of what politicians and celebrities are saying about Greta Thunberg in the press. We also found that by examining these specific events that Greta Thunberg has been portrayed in different ways. Therefore we could also conclude that the framings and portrayals of Greta Thunberg changed throughout time. This means that she went from being portrayed as a young girl skipping school for the climate, to a world famous environmental activist and finally becoming a trustworthy leader. Therefore our study shows that Greta Thunberg was being undermined due to her young age in the ibeginning, but as her status grew the media changed their portrayal of her into the role model that she has become today.

La comunicación de las marcas deportivas ha evolucionado con el paso de los años, ha pasado de la publicidad funcional a la emocional. Las marcas han optado por emplear sports celebrities para difundir su discurso publicitario a través de sus redes sociales, siendo Instagram una de las plataformas elegidas gracias a su nivel de interacción con el público a través de fotografías y videos. Las marcas ya no hablan solo de sus productos sino, cuentan experiencias, historias de superación, estilos de vida, etc. Esta es una estrategia que se utiliza para establecer conexiones con la audiencia que usa la red social; todo ello, a través de personas reales: los sports celebrities. En este trabajo, se quiere comparar los mensajes racionales y emocionales de dos años diferentes (2012 y 2019) en el discurso de la marca Nike en Instagram usando al sport celebrity Rafael Nadal como portavoz. Para ello se utilizará una metodología cualitativa amparada en la teoría de Jiménez y Comet; se entrevistará a 12 expertos relacionados a las comunicaciones: planners, creativos, cuentas y de la marca, a fin de conocer qué ha cambiado y qué permanece en el discurso publicitario. / The communication of sports brands has been evolving throughout the years, going from functional advertising to emotional. The brands have opted in to employ sports celebrities to broadcast their public statements through social media, Instagram being one of the platforms chosen thanks to its level of interaction with the public throughout photographs and videos. Brands are not only talking about their products (tangible benefits or characteristics); instead, they tell experiences, inspiring stories, lifestyles, etc. This is a strategy used to establish connections with the audience that use social media; all of which is done through real people: the sports celebrities. In this project, it will compare the rational and emotional messages in two different years (2012 and 2019) in the discourse of Nike on Instagram using the sport celebrity Rafael Nadal as spokesman. For this, a qualitative methodology based on the theory of Jiménez and Comet will be used; 12 experts related to communications will be interviewed: planners, creatives, accounts and the brand, in order to know what has changed and what remains in their advertising discourse. / Trabajo de investigación

This study analyzed newspaper articles written about five famous Swedish men who in recent years have been accused of different types of sexual crimes. These men were Paolo Roberto, Martin Timell, Göran Lambertz, Jean-Claude Arnault and Soran Ismail. The study’s purpose was to investigate how these famous Swedish men who have been accused of sexual crimes are portrayed in the media, and how this portrayal is related to the media's representation of the victims. The theories used to investigate these questions were Nils Christie's theory of Ideal Victims (1986), Yvonne Jewkes theory about Media and crime (2015), and David Gresham Matza's theory of Neutralization techniques (1957). By using a qualitative content analysis, the selection of material from four newspaper editors could be analyzed and coded, which resulted in a number of themes that contribute to the portrayal. The themes that could be identified were: the high status profile, denial of responsibility or victim, the sex offender, and the man as a victim. The analysis of these themes in relation to the theories and previous research shows that the media often emphasize the high status of these men, and the fact that they tend to reject responsibility by denying the existence of both causing harm and the existence of a victim. Furthermore, the men are also portrayed as sex offenders by giving the victims space to tell their story. Finally, the men themselves can be seen as victims mainly due to the media attention directed at them. / Studien analyserar tidningsartiklar rörande fem kända svenska män som under de senaste åren anklagats för olika typer av sexualbrott. Dessa män är Paolo Roberto, Martin Timell, Göran Lambertz, Jean-Claude Arnault och Soran Ismail. Studien ämnar att undersöka hur dessa kända svenska män som blivit anklagade för sexualbrott porträtteras i media, samt hur denna porträttering står i relation till medias framställning av offren.De teorier som användes för att besvara frågeställningarna var Nils Christies teori om Ideala offer (1986), Yvonne Jewkes teori om Medier och brott (2015), samt David Sykes och Gresham Matzas teori om Neutraliseringstekniker (1957). Genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys har urvalet av materialet från fyra tidningsredaktioner analyserats och kodats för att därigenom kunna urskilja genomgående teman som bidrar till porträtteringen, vilka presenteras och analyseras tillsammans med teorier och tidigare forskning. De teman som kunde identifieras benämndes: högstatusprofilen, förnekande av ansvar eller offer, sexualbrottslingen, samt mannen som offer. Analysen av dessa teman i förhållande till teorier och tidigare forskning visar på att media ofta betonar männens höga status och det faktum att männen tenderar att skjuta ifrån sig ansvaret genom att förneka både förekomsten av skada och offer. Vidare framställs männen även som sexualbrottslingar genom att offren får utrymme att tala om händelserna, samt att männen själva kan ses som offer främst på grund av den mediala uppmärksamheten som riktats mot dem.

Med utgångspunkt i kändisars förmedlade erfarenheter av egenupplevd psykisk ohälsa i podcasts syftar denna studie till att belysa hur kändisar pratar om sin psykiska ohälsa i sociala medier. Den här studien baseras på material från 10 intervjuer med kändisar och har inhämtats från sex olika podcasts: Ångestpodden, Framgångspodden, Söndagsintervjun i P1, Helt ärligt med Sebastian Stakset, Värvet och Talk to me. Metoden som använts för att analysera materialet är en tematisk analys vilket har resulterat i att två teman har identifierats: ”Att hjälpa andra” och ”Att undanhålla och distansera”. Det första temat handlar om att kändisarna genom att dela med sig av sina erfarenheter av sin psykiska ohälsa vill hjälpa andra i liknande situation. Det andra temat handlar om att kändisarna i sättet de uttrycker sig i viss mån undanhåller och på olika sätt distanserar sig från sin psykiska ohälsa. Tillsammans tydliggör dessa teman en dubbelhet, trots att kändisarna uttrycker att de vill hjälpa andra framkommer det samtidigt tendenser att undanhålla och distansera sig från sin ohälsa. Den tematiska analysen kommer sedan analyseras med begrepp från Erving Goffmans stigmateori. Denna studie bidrar till en ökad medvetenhet om vilken påverkan media har vid framställande av psykisk ohälsa och kan ge en ökad förståelse för hur ett stigmatiserat fenomen hanteras av de människor som utsätts för det. / Based on celebrities’ mediated experiences of self-perceived mental illness in podcasts, this study aims to shed light on how celebrities talk about their mental illness on social media. This study is based on material from 10 interviews with celebrities and has been obtained from six different podcasts: Ångestpodden, Framgångspodden, Söndagsintervjun i P1, Helt ärligt med Sebastian Stakset, Värvet and Talk to me. The method used to analyse the material is a thematic analysis, which has resulted in two themes being identified: “Helping others” and “Withhold and distancing”. The first theme is about the celebrities wanting to help others in a similar situation by sharing their experiences of their mental illness. The second theme is about the celebrities in the way they express themselves to some extent withholding and in different ways distancing themselves from their mental illness. Together, these themes clarify a duality, despite the fact that celebrities express that they want to help others, there are tendencies to withhold and distance themselves from their ill health. The thematic analysis will then be analysed with concepts from Erving Goffman’s stigma theory. This study contributes to an increased awareness of the impact of the media in the representation of mental illness and can provide an increased understanding of how a stigmatized phenomenon is handled by the people who are exposed to it.

Balenciaga was one of the most influential fashion brands of 2022. Due to the attention the brand gets in traditional and social media, and their tendency to address political issues during their fashion shows, I consider it relevant to analyse what the brand communicates ideologically. Hence, this study aims to investigate what ideological values are portrayed through audio-visual elements in Balenciaga’s marketing of the Winter 22 collection. A multimodal critical discourse analysis was made on the Winter 22 runway show and campaign video – with support from theories concerning semiotics, discourse, ideology, hegemony, and brand positioning.   The study resulted in four ideological discursive main themes: climate, flight, celebrities, and fashion. Throughout the material a climate discourse was seemingly produced using extreme weather such as snowstorm, flooding, and drought. Grave-looking models walking through a snowstorm in impractical clothing, and the reading of a pro-Ukraine poem gave rise to a flight discourse – a flight caused by climate change or war. The campaign video had a visual focus on celebrities known for their work in popular culture or sports. A fourth pervading theme was fashion, showing a fixation on appearance despite harsh circumstances. These main discourses were used in a marketing genre implicating Balenciaga used climate change and social and political issues to generate more sales. Altogether, in the marketing of the Winter 22 collection Balenciaga used discourses regarding climate, flight, celebrities, and fashion to reproduce the western society’s hegemonic ideologies such as capitalism, materialism, consumerism, individualism, and elitism.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the use of celebrities and the types of products endorsed. Advertisements from one popular magazine in the U.S. and two popular magazines in Thailand were used.

The purpose of this study was to examine how male and female celebrities are represented on the 24 covers of e+, a weekly entertainment magazine that was published by Dubai-based Al Nisr Publishing. This cross-sectional, exploratory study used a qualitative visual semiotic analysis and quantitative content analysis to examine how male and female celebrities are constructed and represented on covers published between October 2010 and September 2011. In addition, the study explored whether the myths and ideologies found on the covers made an impression on the perceptions and tastes of teenagers living in the UAE. A subsequent self-administered questionnaire was completed by 30 teenagers living in the UAE aged between 16 and 19 with the purpose of determining how teenagers experienced representations of celebrities. Furthermore, to gain a deeper understanding of how teenagers experienced celebrity culture, three focus-group interviews, each comprising of six participants, are conducted. The study found that both male and female celebrities were represented in gender stereotypical roles. Results showed that male celebrities were represented as active, strong, decisive and dominant. Male celebrities were associated with success, fast cars and dangerous weapons. On the other hand, female celebrities were predominantly represented as submissive. The representations of female celebrities focused on beauty and fashion. The survey and focus-group results revealed that celebrity culture does have an influence on teenagers. Participants reported that they bought products that they saw celebrities wearing or using, emulated the celebrities’ behaviour and copied hairstyles and make-up looks. However, the study found that, in addition to celebrity culture, teenagers’ perceptions are also shaped by their peers, parents and other people they interact with such as teachers. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication Science)

The primary aim of this Master thesis entitled "Freedom of the Media versus Public Figures' Right to Privacy" is to investigate and analyse the conflict between freedom of the media and right to privacy of public persons. The thesis is formally structured into eight thematical chapters and two parts- theoretical and analytical. The theoretical part of the thesis provides legal, philosophical and media background for further analysis in the special part of the thesis. The analytical part deals with selected case studies of media photography conflicting with right to privacy of public figures. First chapter focuses on the freedom of speech and freedom of the media in historical, legal and philosophical perspective, deals also with the problem of censorship and technological challenges in the postmodern electronic age of the internet. Second chapter critically examines the concept of watchdog journalism in democratic system with special interest in the debate on the current affairs of the British media system. Third chapter deals with right to privacy and reflects also on the fluid concept of privacy in the era of social networking. Fourth chapter analyzes so-called public figure doctrine, celebritization and mediatization of politics and also discusses the collision between free speech and privacy....