Sociology of Paris Match Covers, 1949-2005 Alain Chenu
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From paths of glory to celebrity boulevards: Sociology of Paris Match covers, 1949-2005 Alain Chenu To cite this version: Alain Chenu. From paths of glory to celebrity boulevards: Sociology of Paris Match covers, 1949-2005. 2008. hal-00972809 HAL Id: hal-00972809 https://hal-sciencespo.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00972809 Preprint submitted on 3 Apr 2014 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. From paths of glory to celebrity boulevar s: Sociology of Paris Match covers, 1949-2005 Alain Chenu Notes & Documents n° 2008-05 Octobre 2008 Résumé : La construction sociale e la cél*brit* engage une relation triangulaire entre es personnalit*s, es publics et es m* ias. On abor e ici son *tu e en consi *rant comme cél,bre toute personne nominativement i entifiable repr*sent*e une fois au moins, e 1949 - 2005, en couverture e l.heb oma aire français .images .actualit*s g*n*rales Paris Match. 85 0 es su1ets trait*s concernent es cél*brit*s. La istribution es scores e cél*brit* 2mesur*s en nombre e couvertures) appara4t comme tr,s in*galitaire. On *crit la composition e la population es cél*brit*s par score, omaine e sp*cialisation, 5ge, se6e, nationalit*. On e6plore ensuite l.univers es valeurs ou es conflits e valeurs 7u.incarnent les cél*brit*s. L.article procure un *clairage in* it sur les changements sociau6 intervenus au long u emi si,cle observé. Dans les ann*es 1950 et 1980, le souvenir encore vif es eu6 guerres mon iales, l.engagement irect e la France ans les guerres .In ochine et .Alg*rie, la geste e la con7u:te spatiale continuaient e faire vibrer le public au rythme e la gran e histoire, faite e conflits e pouvoir, e progr,s es sciences et es techni7ues. Ensuite l.accroissement e la part es aristocrates et es professionnels u spectacle est all* e pair avec un renforcement e la 7u:te .un bien-:tre avant tout privé, ont t*moigne la mont*e e l.int*r:t pour la vie amoureuse et familiale es princesses et es acteurs. Pour citer ce ocument : Chenu, Alain 220083. = From paths of glory to celebrity boulevar s: Sociology of Paris Match covers, 1949- 2005 >, Notes & Documents, 2008-05, Paris, OSC, Sciences Po/CNRS. Aersion française : = Les sentiers e la gloire : sociologie es couvertures e Paris Match >. Revue française de sociologie. 2008. 49213: 3-52. Pour une version *lectroni7ue e ce ocument e travail et es autres num*ros es Notes & Documents e l.OSC, voir le site Ceb e l.OSC : http://osc.sciences-po.fr/publication/pub_n& .htm Abstract: Ehe social construction of celebrity involves a triangular relationship betCeen personalities, au iences an the me ia. Fere a celebrity Cas efine as any person i entifie by name an appearing at least once on the cover of the French Ceekly general neCs magazine Paris Match betCeen 1949 an 2005. 850 of the topics han le by the magaHine concern celebrities. Celebrity score istribution 2scores calculate by number of covers a person appears on3 is highly uneven. Ehe celebrity population is escribe in terms of scores, area of specialization, age, se6 an nationality. Ehe article then e6plores the Corl of values or value conflicts incarnate by these celebrities, offering a neC Cay of vieCing the social changes that occurre over the half- century observe . In the 1950s an 80s, the as yet vivi memory of the tCo Corl Cars, France.s involvement in the Cars in In ochina an Algeria, an the ongoing space race kept the public stirring to the beat of la grande histoire, history ma e of poCer conflicts an scientific or technological a vances. Later, the proportionally stronger presence of aristocrats an shoC business professionals Cent along Cith a more intense 7uest for Chat is first an foremost private Cell-being, as atteste by increase interest in the love lives an family life of princesses an actors. Rea ers Cishing to cite this ocument are aske to use the folloCing form of Cor s: Chenu, Alain 220083. IFrom paths of glory to celebrity boulevar s: Sociology of Paris Match covers, 1949-2005J, Notes & Documents, 2008-05, Paris, OSC, Sciences Po/CNRS. French version: ILes sentiers e la gloire : sociologie es couvertures e Paris MatchJ. Revue française de sociologie. 2008 49213: 3-52. For an on-line version of this Corking paper an others in the series, please visit the OSC Cebsite at: http://osc.sciences-po.fr/publication/pub_n& .htm Observatoire sociologique du changement 27 rue Saint-Guillaume 75337 Paris Cedex 7 http://osc.sciences-po.fr Tel '33 ( )1 45 4, 54 5 -ax '33 ( )1 45 4, 54 .6 OSC K Notes & Documents N° 2008-05 Alain Chenu K From paths of glory to celebrity boulevar s: Sociology of Paris Match covers, 1949-2005 All information me ia set an agen a for their au ience 2McCombs an ShaC 19723, i entifying certain topics an giving them priority, han ling them by means of a particular format 2Althei e 19953, an offering a certain Cay of IframingJ current events– IFrames are organizing principles that are socially shared an persistent over time, that Cork symbolically to meaningfully structure the social Corl J 2Reese 2001: 11, cite in McCombs 2004: 188O see also Poffman 19913. For generalist me ia the topic range is Ci e an has to be fully represente . If a single specialty area such as sports, politics or shoC business Cere given lasting priority, the neCs magazine or program Coul cease to be generalist. Moreover, they have to comply Cith the accessibility principle: the aim is to a ress a vast au ience, so they must not try to communicate esoteric messages that Coul re7uire e6pert knoCle ge 2Abbott 19813. In e6change, these me ia confer a kin of transcen ent glory or fame on the personalities an events they han le, a fame that e6cee s the boun aries of specialize fiel s an attains the status of a universal Cithin the limits of a given historical an geographical context. Ehis article focuses primarily on changes in the Cay information is frame an in the relative Ceight of the ifferent topics han le . A tCo- imensional analytic gri Cas use . Ehe first imension establishes an opposition betCeen tCo types of topic-framing: topics Chere protagonists are name personalities an other topics, Chich o not necessarily involve people an are all han le Cithout names. Ehe ominant framing approach in Paris Match is personalize : images of celebrities ma e up 850 of the magazine.s covers, an the ten ency to personalize has groCn stronger over time. Ehe present analysis, then, may be escribe as a sociological stu y of the social construction of celebrity. Ehe secon imension concerns the neCs agen a. Ehe topics covere by Paris Match Cere sorte into four ifferent categories or hea ings representing four ifferent theme areas assimilable to professional Corl s 2Becker 1988O Strauss 1992: 2893. Ehese Corl s vary by the type of selection test by Chich an in ivi ual in one of them moves up the celebrity scale. Ehe Aristocracy category refers to a here itary Corl in Chich celebrity involves selection proce ures of esignating an training privilege heirs of the highest lineages an contracting marriage alliances Cith other houses. In the secon category, Show business professionals, celebrity ranking results from movements on the cultural goo s an services markets an the choices of more or less collegiate ecision-making bo ies such as 1u ges in various artistic contests. In the thir category, Political personnel, celebrity IaCar s“ are the result of institutionalize contests 2elections), Cars an crisis situations. Ehe fourth category, a resi ual one, encompasses athletes 2athletes attain celebrity on the basis of their performance in tournaments an games in a specific sportO this is combine Cith a ranking of the sports themselves), heroes an victims in human interest stories or isaster events, e6perts an e6plorers. Selection mo e iversity means that the number of names in Chich celebrity Cas concentrate varies for the four sub-populations observe , as oes social morphology 2age, se6, family situation, nationality). Ehe length of the perio un er stu y–1949-2005–alloCs for efining changes in hoC neCs has been covere since the en of Rorl Rar II. Ehe empirical stu y focuses on covers of the Ceekly magazine Paris Match throughout the perio . Ehis choice is 1ustifie by the folloCing combination of criteria: Paris Match han les general neCs; it has a Ci e circulationO rea ership composition closely resembles composition of the French population at largeO the cover len s itself to systematic content analysis, Chich in 1/43 OSC K Notes & Documents N° 2008-05 Alain Chenu K From paths of glory to celebrity boulevar s: Sociology of Paris Match covers, 1949-2005 turn alloCs for characterizing neCs agen a composition an hoC it change over more than half a century of publication. Ehe main evelopments observe concern the increasing amount of space evote to aristocrats an shoC business professionals, as Cell as rising interest in celebrities‘ love lives an family life.