Open-Ended Analyses of the Sociopolitical Impact of Celebrity Change: Advantages, Operationalization, and an Illustration with Hong Kong Celebrity

Matthew M. Chew*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

    Abstract

    This study contributes to advancing research on a central problem in the sociology of celebrity: the sociopolitical impact of celebrity change. The paper argues for the need for more open-ended analyses of the sociopolitical impact of contemporary celebrity change. These analyses utilize non-Western data, avoid techno-determinism, prioritize questions of why and how celebrity becomes progressive over monolithic assessments, and emphasize the investigation of celebrity’s institutional and political contexts. It also supplies a partial solution to operationalize such analyses: focusing on whether and how a given celebrity system is becoming more (or less) democratized. Then it tests this solution by using it to examine Hong Kong celebrity change in the 2000s. My data sources include in-depth interviews of 32 celebrities and industry insiders, participant observation, informal interviews, audiences’ online discourses, and documentary materials. I find that Hong Kong celebrity became less democratized and that it was de-democratized by six institutional changes: corporate suppression of media-assisted paths of celebrity-making, corporate corruption of fame reward systems, ‘new ascribed celebrities,’ corporate appropriation of celebrity news media, and the state’s interference of celebrity. My findings demonstrate the utility of open-ended analyses and my partial solution for operationalizing them.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)557-580
    Number of pages24
    JournalSociological Forum
    Volume37
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jun 2022

    Scopus Subject Areas

    • Sociology and Political Science

    User-Defined Keywords

    • cultural sociology
    • democratization of celebrity
    • Hong Kong
    • popular culture
    • social change
    • sociology of celebrity

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