Young audiences and fans of celebrities in Portugal

Abstract

In this article, we explore young people’s diverse relationships with celebrity culture in Portugal. We argue that celebrity as an object and young people as audiences require us to look beyond fans and further analyse the tangential audience positions taken by young people, highlighting the contestation of the cultural meanings and the value of celebrity within youth culture. Young people’s attitudes and opinions towards national and global celebrity culture reflect their broader media consumption and cultural habits, which in turn are influenced by families, gender and age. This work is based on fieldwork conducted in 2009/2010, consisting of individual and group interviews of 46 young people, aged 12 to 17, from different social backgrounds and fans of different celebrities, questioned about their daily life, media consumption and opinions about celebrity status.