Stars in Space: Celebrity Gossip Magazines, Guilt, and the Liminoid Airport

Abstract

Existing research in social anthropology suggests that liminality, a condition associated with travel and leisure sites, may allow actors to challenge social conventions and taboos. In addition, scholarship in the field of media studies finds that space has the potential to impact audiences’ attitudes towards media use. This study considers the theory of liminality, as set forth by Van Gennep and Turner, in relationship to the act of reading celebrity gossip magazines at the airport in order to examine how the airport space impacts travelers’ reading experiences. Specifically, this study seeks to understand how the liminal nature of the airport space influences readers’ perceptions of celebrity gossip magazines, which are feminized and trivialized in mainstream discourse. Data collected through qualitative interviews with 18 readers suggests that the airport space impacts audiences’ expectations of and attitudes towards these texts. Findings indicate that, for female readers, the airport serves as a liminoid site, wherein built-in wait time, anonymity, and leisure mitigate feelings of guilt.