Celebrities also suffer from the economic crisis’: broke celebrities and neoliberal narratives from Spain’s Great Recession

During the years of the economic crisis, ‘broke celebrities’ attracted the attention of the Spanish media. The main aim of this paper is to analyse how these narratives of celebrities in bankruptcy fostered a neoliberal definition of the economic crisis and legitimised austerity policies. In these n...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Oliva Rota, Mercè, Pérez Latorre, Óliver
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Repositorio:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/36549
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/36549
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19392397.2018.1557533
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Neoliberalism
Austerity
Broke celebrities
Great Recession
Schadenfreude
Descripción
Sumario:During the years of the economic crisis, ‘broke celebrities’ attracted the attention of the Spanish media. The main aim of this paper is to analyse how these narratives of celebrities in bankruptcy fostered a neoliberal definition of the economic crisis and legitimised austerity policies. In these narratives, the crisis was represented as a social equaliser, affecting all social groups evenly; the causes of the crisis were individualised and celebrities were identified as the epitome of irresponsible citizens who have 'lived beyond their means'; and citizens were encouraged to do 'whatever it takes' to find a job. Nevertheless, our paper also shows how audiences contested some of these values in online comments, challenging the narratives conveyed by Spanish media.