Celebrity Big Brother Research Articles

A content analysis of tobacco and alcohol audio-visual content in a sample of UK reality TV programmes.

BackgroundExposure to tobacco and alcohol content in audio-visual media is a risk factor for smoking and alcohol use in young people. We report an analysis of tobacco and alcohol content, and estimates of population exposure to this content, in a sample of reality television programmes broadcast in the UK.MethodsWe used 1-minute interval coding to quantify tobacco and alcohol content in all episodes of five reality TV programmes aired between January and August 2018 (Celebrity Big Brother; Made in Chelsea; The Only Way is Essex; Geordie Shore and Love Island), and estimated population exposure using viewing data and UK population estimates.ResultsWe coded 5219 intervals from 112 episodes. Tobacco content appeared in 110 (2%) intervals in 20 (18%) episodes, and alcohol in 2212 (42%) intervals and in all episodes. The programmes delivered approximately 214 million tobacco gross impressions to the UK population, including 47.37 million to children; and for alcohol, 4.9 billion and 580 million respectively.ConclusionTobacco, and especially alcohol, content is common in reality TV. The popularity of these programmes with young people, and consequent exposure to tobacco and alcohol imagery, represents a potentially major driver of smoking and alcohol consumption.

‘It’s what Emmeline Pankhurst would have wanted’: Celebrity Big Brother: Year of the Woman (2018, UK) and negotiations of popular feminism(s)

ABSTRACTFeminist scholarship has invested attention in popular culture as a terrain upon which understandings of feminism are circulated, contested and explored. This is particularly so in the contemporary moment in which feminism appears to have achieved a new ascendency. But whilst popular culture and feminism are recognised as inextricably enmeshed, there remains the implicit or explicit assumption in feminist scholarship that popular media culture could do ‘better’, and that there is a more ‘authentic’ form of feminism waiting to find representation. In response to this context, this article undertakes an analysis of Twitter responses to Celebrity Big Brother: Year of the Woman (2018) in order to explore the ways in which a popular media text provides an arena for the negotiation of popular feminism. Rather than positioning reality TV and celebrity culture as a site of ‘ideological ruin’ for feminism, this article explores how CBB is discussed in relation to feminism as popular television, and the ways in which this may offer affordances and limitations. The article concludes that feminist media scholars need to give due attention to the complexities of popular feminism as articulated by popular media culture.

‘Governing Celebrity: Multiculturalism, Offensive Television Content and Celebrity Big Brother’: A Response

This response to the special issue on ‘Governing Celebrity: Multiculturalism, Offensive Television Content and Celebrity Big Brother’ highlights its contribution to key socio-legal debates about popular legal consciousness, responsive regulation and social change through law. The response also discusses some of the methodological challenges posed by research into media regulation. How should such research be theoretically framed and is it necessary to distinguish clearly between deconstructionist and modernist understandings of human rights? Are social-psychological dynamics a relevant factor for explaining whether some forms of speech become labelled as racist? The concluding section provides suggestions for further research into the patterns that shape how socio-legal researchers read the social world and how the opening up of a new field of inquiry – the governance of celebrity – can be extended to understanding celebrity politics.

<i>Celebrity Big Brother</i>, Human Rights and Popular Culture

The British reality show Celebrity Big Brother caused great controversy in January 2007 when remarks made by a few contestants, most notably the reality TV star Jade Goody, and targeted at a fellow Indian contestant, were widely read as racist. In this paper, I analyse the race incident against the backdrop of a progressively expansive legal framework offering recognition for human dignity, equality and cultural diversity, most importantly through the Human Rights Act 1998. The Act aims to promote a comprehensive human rights ‘culture’ in public life, but it would be hard to ignore the extremely negative coverage of the legislation in large sections of the British press. However, the strong public reaction to the Celebrity Big Brother race incident seems to suggest that while public opinion on existing human rights legislation is divided, the core principles on which the law is founded may enjoy much greater support. Thus, politicians and media commentators were quick to read the Celebrity Big Brother furore as an encouraging sign of how inclusive British society had become. I am inclined to take a more sceptical stance, especially in light of the way in which Jade Goody’s class background was relentlessly targeted in press criticism of her appearance on Celebrity Big Brother, while sympathy for her victim, the glamorous Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty, appeared to have been motivated largely by the fact that she fitted the media template of the deserving victim.

Race and the refusal to name racism: consumption, identity and choice in the <i>Celebrity Big Brother</i> House

The centrality of consumption in the resolution of the ‘race row’ in the Celebrity Big Brother(CBB) House 2007 characterizes ‘the consumption politics of race’ engendered in response to ‘racism lite’ (adopting Mary Riddell’s term) - forms of racial harm articulated in normative frames specific to the entertainment industry. The regulatory response to racism litewas premised on a radical and post-modern framing of race and racial harm. When compared with the responses to racism outside the CBB House, this framing reveals a cautionary tale. The recognition of racism liteis confined to a market defined framework that attributes responsibility with a view to furthering economic agendas of dominant market actors. The danger is that this dominance can (as was the case with the ‘race row’ in the CBB House) henceforth define the terms on which racism is debated in contemporary society.

Guest Editorial

When the fifth series of Celebrity Big Brother (CBB), a spin-off of the reality show Big Brother, was broadcast in the UK in January 2007, it initially appeared that it would fail to generate the same level of public interest as previous series. That changed spectacularly when the show was hit by allegations of racism. As a reality format, the principal appeal of CBB is that it gives viewers an opportunity to explore how well contestants cope with the pressure of constant surveillance in the Big Brother House, often revealing their ‘veridical’ self (Rojek 2001) in the process. CBB also plays successfully with ‘fame hierarchies’ (Holmes, in this issue). One of its trademarks is its fondness for making ‘top’ celebrities (i.e. participants with some degree of fame) mingle with bottom-ranking Z-listers. A masterstroke in the 2006 series was undoubtedly the introduction of the non-celebrity Chantelle Houghton, whom celebrity peers genuinely believed to be a singer in the (fictitious) girl band Kandy Floss. When she went on to win the show, her triumph appeared to confirm not only that everyone can be famous these days but also that everyone can successfully pretend to be famous. Celebrity itself has become a kind of pastiche we can skill ourselves in by studiously reading the celebrity press and cherry-picking the most affordable aspects of celebrity fashion and lifestyle. Despite its continuing association with privilege, wealth and excess, celebrity status appears to have been become increasingly egalitarian thanks to the ubiquity of reality TV.

‘Reality Television’ and Content Regulation – Perspectives and Challenges

The introduction and popularity of new genres of ‘reality television’ have created significant challenges for regulation of broadcast content. The availability of a larger number of television channels, where particular reality television shows might be broadcast live for many hours in the day, combined with the unpredictable activities of ‘reality television’ participants raises significant difficulties both for broadcasters and regulators. There is a significant need to consider the rationale for content regulation in this context, and the appropriate regulatory response where infringements take place, in both their theoretical and practical contexts.This article examines the regulatory approach for offensive content in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The study has adopted a comparative approach in order to determine whether regulators across the Atlantic are confronted with similar challenges and whether similar solutions are adopted in order to address these challenges. The examination of the regime in the United Kingdom assesses the effectiveness of the Broadcasting Code <http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/ifi/codes/bcode/> (the Code) adopted by the British communications regulator Ofcom on setting standards for broadcasting content. The discussion focuses on the application of the Code in practice, by analysing the official inquiry and ruling by Ofcom on Channel Four’s response to the 2007 Celebrity Big Brother (CBB) incident. The analysis of the system in the United States of America examines the approach adopted by the American communications regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in dealing with offensive content, focusing on the free speech provisions under the First Amendment of the American Constitution and on FCC’s mandate to act in the pursuit of the public interest. The discussion will examine, inter alia, FCC’s response to complaints regarding the broadcast of indecent material in the ‘reality television’ programme Married by America. A particular feature in both jurisdictions is the tension between regulatory intervention in broadcasting content and considerations for freedom of expression. Both systems are affected by the lack of adequate definitions of the limitations to freedom of expression. This study aims to determine what the current approach is in these jurisdictions for addressing this tension and what lessons might be learned for the future.

‘Jade’s Back, and This Time she’s Famous’: Narratives of Celebrity in the <i>Celebrity Big Brother</i> ‘Race’ Row

Prior to the Celebrity Big Brother ‘ race’ row in 2007, British Reality TV star, Jade Goody, was recurrently held up as emblematic of the ‘democratisation’ of celebrity. Yet this controversy gives us cause to question a narrative of populist democracy where the circulation of celebrity status is concerned. This article explores the construction of Jade’s image before, during and after the row, examining how it offers a unique insight into the relationship between Reality TV, celebrity and discourses of selfhood in contemporary culture - especially as these are mapped across the categories of gender and class. Indeed, Jade’s representational journey points to some of the cultural tensions which surround the fascination with Reality TV stars. They are often required to demonstrate the retention of an essential ‘working-class glitz beneath the glamour’ (Biressi and Nunn 2005, p. 146), while (like many ‘essential’ identities), this core can also be cast in negative terms – as the ‘real’ identity which must be (re)assumed if social order is to prevail.

Shilpa’s Filthy Hands

The celebrity Big Brother race row centers, in part, on the preparation, handling and consumption of food. While the ritual of formal and informal dining is a key trope of the series, in this instance it is used to construct notions of difference and Otherness. Eating/not eating Indian becomes a symbol of purity and danger: of Shilpa's filthy natural self that somehow lurked beneath her glamorous exterior. If one eats Indian one is consuming the Other, with the potential to be taken over or spoiled by it. Shilpa, then, comes to stand for a complex and contradictory mix of Eastern/Oriental gender stereotypes. However, at the same time, the racialised grammar of representation used to mark her out as Other draws attention to the white bodies attempting to deny her wholeness. In choosing to eat/not eat Indian one opens up a dynamic space for an interrogation of whiteness to emerge. In fact, Jade, Jo, and Danielle become inferior signifiers of national identity in an age of global consumption. By contrast, Shilpa becomes 'surplus value', a supericonic sign that resists the name calling, fetishisation, marginalisation demanded by those on the show. The Big Brother race row may well be a text that directly speaks to the new post-colonial communication flows in place in the contemporary age.

‘Love me or hate me – I don’t care’: Katie Hopkins, Celebrity Big Brother and the destruction of a negative image

This article aims to analyse the appearance of controversial British columnist Katie Hopkins on reality television series Celebrity Big Brother. Katie Hopkins made a name for herself as a public figure as a result of attracting public criticism for her harsh views on a range of topics from obesity to welfare reform. This notoriety led to her 2014 appearance on the British edition of Celebrity Big Brother. During Hopkins' time on the series, cracks began to form in her carefully cultivated negative public image; given her relatively unique approach towards courting controversy, this transformation was particularly profound and provoked a number of questions regarding the 'celebreality' genre and its impact on the prominent personalities that become involved.

Star image, celebrity reality television and the fame cycle

ABSTRACTIn this article, I discuss the phenomenon of celebrity reality television and explore its function for those participating in it. Drawing on the success of their non-celebrity counterparts, programmes such as Celebrity Big Brother, I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here and Dancing With the Stars have become popular globally and, although arguably no longer at their peak, continue to attract large audiences and significant amounts of publicity. In the article I discuss the role these shows can serve for celebrities at different levels of their careers. I argue that reality television appeals in different ways to celebrities at different points in the fame ‘cycle’: ‘ordinary’ people or ‘pre-celebrities’ seeking to become known through it; proto-celebrities who wish to expand their fame; celebrities engaged in the work of promotion for their other endeavours; celebrities who wish to remake their existing star image through using reality television as a rehabilitative strategy or an opportunity to develop new skills; and those whose careers are in a period of ‘post-celebrity’ who seek to renew their fame. I explore how a successful reality show cast is one that combines celebrities who are at a range of points in the fame cycle as the interactions between the cast members and their debates about fame and hierarchy prove a key attraction for audiences.

Celebrity politics and political representation: The case of George Galloway MP on Celebrity Big Brother

In 2006, George Galloway MP appeared in Celebrity Big Brother. His participation produced a public outcry from people concerned that a politician should take part in a reality TV show instead of looking after their constituency. Even when the MP justified his action as an attempt to raise awareness about politics among young people, critics maintained their scepticism. This article suggests that the rhetoric of ‘ordinariness’, ‘authenticity’ and ‘trust’ exploited in Celebrity Big Brother 2006 (CBB06) frame an understanding of representation that is rooted in the UK’s model of Public Service Broadcasting, and that this should be seen as political. Drawing upon democratic theory and using the case of CBB06, this article evaluates how popular television programmes like Big Brother articulate political ideas and values that should be taken seriously by political scientists.

TV’s Big Brother has duty of care for contestants

Show triggers fresh mental health debate, says Bridget O’ConnellThe recent return to TV of Celebrity Big Brother has sparked another round of discussion in the media about the psychological effect on contestants.

Stars Behaving Badly

There appears to be a high degree of public tolerance for celebrities who misbehave and break the law. This has given rise to concerns that celebrities are bad role models who are glamorizing antisocial behaviour. However, it would be wrong to suggest that celebrity antics are uniformly tolerated and accepted by the public. The reputation of some celebrities is undoubtedly seriously affected when they breach moral, legal and social codes, while other celebrities suffer few adverse effects. This paper examines the importance of gender and class in ascertaining the limits of permissiveness that apply to celebrity wrongdoing. Female celebrities of a lower-class status are often subjected to very high levels of public scrutiny and punitive media commentary. This point will be illustrated with reference to the British reality TV star Jade Goody and her fall from grace following public outcry about her treatment of her co-contestant Shilpa Shetty on Celebrity Big Brother 2007.

‘You don't do it in public’: racism, respectability and responsibility in Celebrity Big Brother

The 2007 run of Celebrity Big Brother (UK) resulted in an unprecedented international focus on the series itself and on the issue of British race politics. This was due to a series of incidents of alleged racist bullying perpetuated against Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty by three of the British housemates. Subsequent academic analyses of the incidents have focused almost exclusively upon the actions of one of the British housemates – Jade Goody – and have explored how racism was denied or otherwise accounted for by Goody. In contrast, what has been given little attention are the accounts provided by Shetty herself after winning the series and leaving the Celebrity Big Brother house. In this article, we examine one particular interview conducted with Shetty, and in so doing we explore the very specific ways in which Shetty accounted for racism, and the relationship between this and her identity claims as an Indian celebrity. We conclude that while at first pass it may appear that Shetty denied the existence of racism in the Big Brother household, it may instead be suggested that she produced a very complex and nuanced account of oblique ways in which it can subtly manifest itself. In so doing, not only did she maintain an image of herself as a responsible and ‘respectable’ Indian woman, but she was also able to state that racism is unacceptable and requires ongoing attention. In this way, Shetty potentially opened up a space that would otherwise have been unavailable had she simply responded ‘yes’ to the question ‘were the actions of the British housemates racist?’.

Jade the obscure: celebrity death and the mediatised maiden

In early 2009 the British tabloid and broadsheet media were consumed with the impending death of reality TV star Jade Goody. Goody, an under-educated working-class girl transformed into a media personality by UK's Big Brother, had already been at the centre of two major media controversies: one in 2002 for her tabloid vilification and recuperation during Big Brother 3 and again in 2007 for using racist language against a housemate on Celebrity Big Brother. Her medical diagnosis of advanced cervical cancer, however, shifted the controversy in terms of magnitude: filming a reality TV show for Living TV during her treatment and rapid decline, Goody was accused of ‘selling her illness’ to the media and even of intending to die on television, the ultimate taboo. These programmes were widely reviled by commentators as the nadir in Goody's mutually exploitative relationship with celebrity media, but we argue that the Jade series is a structurally groundbreaking programme in which real time and television time begin to coalesce in a way that disrupts categories of celebrity, privacy and mortality. Our analysis focuses upon the ways in which Goody's impending death impacts on her self-image and on the series' production, highlighting both her celebrity and the show as emergent texts. Through a close analysis of the series, we interrogate Goody's complex relationship with her celebrity persona in the shadow of terminal illness, and the British public's even more complex relationship with the mediatisation of celebrity death.

The management of accusations of racism in Celebrity Big Brother

The 2007 UK series of Celebrity Big Brother drew considerable attention to Britain as a result of the alleged racist bullying of Bollywood film star Shilpa Shetty by four British celebrity housemates. At stake in these allegations was any perception that Britain as a country promotes inclusivity and discourages racism. In this article, we examine, through an analysis of the exit interviews conducted with the four housemates in question, how accusations of racism were made by the host of Big Brother, and how racism was almost made to disappear in the interviews. Specifically, we elaborate on how racism was constructed not simply as an individual aberration, but more precisely as a matter of perception. We then explore how the host of the interviews avoided making accusations of racism herself by implying that it was others who perceived the behaviours of the housemates as racist, and by using other words (such as ‘bullying’) rather than explicitly referring to racism. We conclude by outlining the implications of our findings for future discursive research on racism, and we emphasize the need to further explore how rhetorical strategies aimed at denying racism operate in the service of shoring up privileged identities.

Bleak outlook on the news front

The House of Lords Communications Committee recommends more muscle for the broadcasting watchdog, yet Ofcom's report reads like a souped-up store catalogue, writes academic Petley. And he attacks Ofcom's latest reports: "New News [the Lords report] and Ofcom's first and second PSB review demonstrate in the clearest possible manner that what the vast majority of UK citizens want is, at the very least, the maintenance of the current level of provision of regional news programmes on ITV. But what does the Annual Report highlight as Ofcom's proudest achievement in 2007/8 in terms of "improving compliance and empowering citizens and consumers"? Clamping down on the mis-selling of mobile phones, making it easier to switch mobile phone operators, introducing protection against "slamming" (having your phone account moved to another provider without your knowledge), imposing fines on broadcasters for operating premium phone line scams, and requiring Channel 4 to broadcast Ofcom's censure of Celebrity Big Brother 2007 on three separate occasions." This signals that the prospects for public service broadcasting as a whole, let alone regional news provision on ITV, are indeed bleak in the extreme.

Jade's confession: racism and the dialectics of celebrity

In the United Kingdom in January 2007, Celebrity Big Brother became national and international news for incidents of racist language and bullying. The main culprit, Jade Goody, was subsequently evicted and then attempted to rehabilitate her public image in a series of confessional interviews. I explore these “confessions” through the concept of the “dialectics” of celebrity, arguing that the dialectical strategies of respect/ridicule and reality/hyper-reality are central to how the confessional format manages the semiotic damage to a star persona. I suggest that we can discern a reflexive deployment of hyper-reality, evidenced in the attempts to engage the audience in an acknowledgement that reality television is indeed hyper-real and therefore any racist behaviour in that environment is ultimately not real. The real or authentic Jade is similarly a reflexive construction, achieved through the confessional management of interiority using the respect/ridicule strategy. These dialectics permit the rehabilitation of the celebrity as commodity by rendering the displayed racism as “inauthentic”.

Celebrity Big Brother, Inequality and Hindu Nationalism in India: Opportunity for Critique of Internal Inequalities Minimized in Debates About International Racism

Celebrity Big Brother, Inequality and Hindu Nationalism in India: Opportunity for Critique of Internal Inequalities Minimized in Debates About International Racism