Dissertation
Celebrity Journalism and the Conservatorship of Britney Spears: Toward a Normative Framework for Mental Health Reporting
Washington State University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
05/2024
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000006511
Abstract
The focus of this normative case study was how journalists ought to report on celebrity mental health experiences. Grounded in the social responsibility theory of the press, this study used critical discourse analysis to abductively analyze 435 news articles and transcripts covering Britney Spears’s 13-year conservatorship. This study identifies five discourses – decline, spectacle, control, protection, and captivity – that were central in the representation of Spears’s mental health and her experience in the conservatorship. The study also finds that news coverage of Spears’s conservatorship, to varying degrees, fulfilled five knowledge brokership functions: awareness, accessibility, engagement, linkage, and mobilization. Finally, the study highlights four key ethical issues in the news coverage about Spears’s conservatorship. Based on these findings, this study proposes six normative criteria that journalists ought to follow when reporting on mental health.
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Details
- Title
- Celebrity Journalism and the Conservatorship of Britney Spears
- Creators
- Miles John Paul Sari
- Contributors
- Ryan Thomas (Chair)Elizabeth Blanks Hindman (Committee Member) - Washington State University, Department of Journalism and Media ProductionAmanda Boyd (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Edward R. Murrow College of Communication
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 270
- Identifiers
- 99901122439701842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation