Arthurs, J. and Shaw, S. 2016. Celebrity Capital in the Political Field: Russell Brand’s migration from stand-up comedy to Newsnight. Media, Culture and Society. 38 (8), pp. 1136-1152. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443716635869
| Title | Celebrity Capital in the Political Field: Russell Brand’s migration from stand-up comedy to Newsnight |
|---|---|
| Type | Journal article |
| Authors | Arthurs, J. and Shaw, S. |
| Abstract | Our case study of charismatic celebrity comedian Russell Brand’s turn to political activism uses Bourdieu’s field theory to understand the process of celebrity migration across social fields. We investigate how Brand’s capital as a celebrity performer, storyteller and self-publicist translated from comedy to politics. To judge how this worked in practice, we analysed the comedic strategies used in his stand-up show Messiah Complex and undertook a conversational analysis of his notorious interview with Jeremy Paxman on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)’s flagship current affairs programme Newsnight. We argue that Brand was able to secure political legitimacy by creatively constituting himself as an authentic anti-austerity spokesperson for the disenfranchised left in United Kingdom. In order to do so, he repurposed his celebrity capital to political ends and successfully deployed the cultural and social capitals he had developed as a celebrity comedian to secure widespread engagement with his media performances. |
| Keywords | Celebrity, celebrity capital, Conversation Analysis, comedy, cultural capital, Jeremy Paxman, Russell Brand, political activism |
| Journal | Media, Culture and Society |
| Journal citation | 38 (8), pp. 1136-1152 |
| ISSN | 0163-4437 |
| Year | 2016 |
| Publisher | Sage |
| Accepted author manuscript | File Access Level Open (open metadata and files) |
| Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443716635869 |
| Web address (URL) | http://mcs.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/03/15/0163443716635869.abstract |
| Publication dates | |
| Published | 15 Mar 2016 |
| Published online | 15 Mar 2016 |
| Published in print | Nov 2016 |