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Kevin’s Predicaments: Power and Celebrity across the Political and Media Fields

Craig, Geoffrey (2014) Kevin’s Predicaments: Power and Celebrity across the Political and Media Fields. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 19 (1). pp. 24-41. ISSN 1940-1612. E-ISSN 1940-1620. (doi:10.1177/1940161213508206) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:41899)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1940161213508206

Abstract

This article grounds the concept of political celebrity in the contexts of the differentiated media or journalistic field, and it also investigates the functions of political celebrity in the exercise of political leadership where individuals must negotiate the relationship between the political and media fields. Through a discussion of the changing political fortunes of former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the power of political celebrity is attributed to particular structural negotiations between the political and media fields, and also to exploitations of the temporality of political cycles, and the ephemerality of the currency of political celebrity. It is also argued that political celebrity is an unstable phenomenon, partly because it encapsulates a tension between different conceptualizations of subjectivity, where the positing of an autonomous, authentic self competes with a more situational and performative understanding of the self and that this latter understanding of political celebrity is exacerbated in the contexts of post-broadcast democracy.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1177/1940161213508206
Uncontrolled keywords: celebrity, politics, media, fields, Kevin Rudd
Subjects: P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN4699 Journalism
P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics > P95.8 Communication. Political aspects.
P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics > P87 Communication. Mass Media
J Political Science
P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1990 Broadcasting
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > Centre for Journalism
Depositing User: Geoffrey Craig
Date Deposited: 19 Jul 2014 15:59 UTC
Last Modified: 17 Aug 2022 10:57 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/41899 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Craig, Geoffrey.

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