藝人如何利用部落格修護形象之分析:以伊能靜為例 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學國際傳播英語碩士學程 International Master’s Program in International Communication Studies. Master’s Thesis. 學. ‧ 國. College of Communication National Chengchi University 政治大立碩士論文. ‧. io. y. sit. Nat. 論文題目. er. An Analysis of Entertainers’ Image Remedy in Blog: A. n. al. i n C U Case hofeYi n gNeng c h i Jing. v. Student: Chih-Hsiang Yu Advisor: Dr. Pao-Fang Chang 中國民國一○○年七月 (July, 2011).

(2) 論文題目 An Analysis of Entertainers’ Image Remedy in Blog: A Case of Yi Neng Jing. 藝人如何利用部落格修護形象之分析:以伊能靜為例研究生：游智翔. Student: Chih-Hsiang Yu. 指導教授：張寶芳. Advisor: Dr. Pao-Fang Chang. 政治大. 學. ‧ 國. 立國立政治大學國際傳播英語碩士學程碩士論文. ‧. Nat. io. sit. y. A Thesis. er. Submitted to International Master’s Program in International. n. al. i n C Communication h e n g c hStudies i U. v. National Chengchi University In partial fulfillment of the Requirement For the degree of Master in International Communication Studies. 中國民國一○○年七月 (July, 2011).

(3) An Analysis of Entertainers’ Image Remedy in Blog: A Case of Yi Neng Jing. A Master Thesis. National Chengchi University. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. Nat. n. al. er. io. sit. y. ‧. In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Art. Ch. engchi. by Chih-Hsiang Yu (July, 2011). i n U. v.

(4) Abstract The main purpose of this research is to explore Taiwanese celebrities’ use of blogs to repair their image and the change in the interaction among media, celebrities and audiences when celebrities start to blog. In conducting this research, the researcher intends to further clarify the relationship among these three actors in the new media era, as well as understanding how celebrities attempt to repair their image in cyberspace. Yi Neng Jing (伊能靜), a Taiwanese celebrity, is chosen as the case study in this. 政治大. research. A content analysis is adopted as the research method to investigate the way in. 立. which she remedied her image in a blog when it was jeopardized by news of her. ‧ 國. 學. extramarital affair in 2008. Apart from her blog content, the mass media’s coverage and audience’s response to her in a specific time segment are also analysed.. ‧. The research findings show that Yi used bolstering, transcendence, attacking one’s. y. Nat. er. io. sit. accuser and denial as the major strategies to restore her image. These strategies are basically consistent with Benoit’s research into Hugh Grant’s case of lewd behavior (1997). The. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. research findings also show that the mass media does not necessarily take what celebrities. engchi. say as being fact and often makes its own interpretation of celebrities’ blogging texts. Thus, celebrities’ efforts to repair their image tend to be offset in a mass media framework. Keywords: Image Repair Strategies, celebrity, image crisis, blog. i.

(5) Acknowledgement Four years of graduate school life, to be honest, is not expected. Before I entered in IMICS, I was a pretty confident man and believed anything can be achieved easily, as long as I wanted to. However, the thesis writing process was indeed a huge strike toward my confidence. I don’t understand why it seems to be an easy thing for others, but is like a huge rock on my shoulder when I try to complete it. There were so many nights that I could hardly breathe when I tried to sleep; there were so many times I yelled out loud on the street to ditch my pressure, when nobody were around; there were so many severely depressed. 政治大. moments, during my thesis writing journey.. 立. Several months ago, I was still wondering if I could really finish it and write this. ‧ 國. 學. acknowledgement. Right now, at this moment, I am writing it. There are just too many. ‧. complicated thoughts coming to my mind. First of all, I want to show my greatest thanks to my advisor Pao-Fang Chang. Thank you so much for your valuable advices on my thesis. I. y. Nat. io. sit. have always known that I am not a smart student. And there are still many things could be. n. al. er. improved in this thesis. Thank you so much for not giving me up and still willing to spend. Ch. i n U. v. your time on my thesis. I wouldn’t be able to finish this thesis without your help. I also have. engchi. to show my greatest thanks to Professor Yi-Ning and Professor Ling-Ling. They have been very kind and patient and willing to help me solve my problems. Thank you for your solid suggestions toward the drawbacks of my thesis and all the encouragements you gave me. I want to thank to all my IMICS classmates. They are Marcos, Linda, Benoit, Sarah, Ann, Grace, Betty, Peggy, Viktorija, Justyna. Thank you guys for accompanying me in my graduate school life. There were so many wonderful memories we had been through together and I will always keep that in mind. Hope we will keep in touch forever. I also want to show my appreciation to all my friends who had given me support and faith to ii.

(6) sustain me moving forward. They are 黑龍, 陳敬熙, 鄒偉, 陳韋成, Daniela, 周大亨, Steven Mu, Celestin. Thank you for accompanying me when I was down and always by my side. Finally, it’s my dear family. My parents, two sisters, other family members and my girlfriend Avis. I couldn’t imagine how would I become if I didn’t have all the help and support you guys gave to me. All the love and concern from you are the most powerful force for me to stand up again and keep moving forward. When I was at the most helpless and frustrated moment, it’s you guys who give me strength and courage. I couldn’t find. 政治大. other adjectives to express how much I love you guys.. 立. If thesis writing is a marathon, I may run it slow and I may run it bad. But at least I. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. never give up. I finally finish it. I finally finish my thesis.. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. iii. i n U. v.

(7) TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Research Background and Motivation ..................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Research Purpose and Significance .......................................................................................................... 5 2.1 Development of Blogs & Convergence Cultures ....................................................................................... 7 2.1.1 Definition and elements ................................................................................................................................... 7 2.1.2 Blogging: as Alternative Media ...................................................................................................................... 10 2.1.3 Convergence Culture ...................................................................................................................................... 12. 政治大. 2.2 Celebrities and media ............................................................................................................................. 13. 立. 2.2.1 Definitions and characteristics of celebrities ................................................................................................. 14 2.2.2 Stars studied by Richard Dyer ........................................................................................................................ 16. ‧ 國. 學. 2.2.3 Celebrities and mass media ........................................................................................................................... 17. 2.3 Self-Presentation and Image Restoration Discourse .............................................................................. 19. ‧. 2.3.1 Self Presentation Offline ................................................................................................................................ 19 2.3.2 Self-Presentation Online ................................................................................................................................ 22. y. Nat. 2.3.3 On-line Self-Presentation of Celebrities ........................................................................................................ 25. sit. 2.3.4 Image Restoration Discourse.......................................................................................................................... 27. er. io. 2.3.5 Research Questions ........................................................................................................................................ 31. al. n. v i n Ch 3.1 Data Selection and Collection................................................................................................................. 32 engchi U 3.2 Distinguishing Categories ....................................................................................................................... 35. 3. RESEARCH METHOD ................................................................................................................................... 32. 3.3 Deciding Unit of Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 36 3.4 Context of Analysis and System of Enumeration .................................................................................... 37 4. DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS..................................................................................................................... 38 4.1 Analysis of Yi’s Image Repair Strategies ................................................................................................. 38 4.1.1 Bolstering ........................................................................................................................................................ 38 4.1.2 Transcendence ................................................................................................................................................ 44 4.1.3 Attack accuser................................................................................................................................................. 46 4.1.4 Denial .............................................................................................................................................................. 47 4.1.5 Summary......................................................................................................................................................... 49. 4.2 Mass media’s reaction to Yi’s image repair discourse ............................................................................ 49 4.2.1 Bolstering ........................................................................................................................................................ 51. iv.

(8) 4.2.2 Transcendence ................................................................................................................................................ 56 4.2.3 Denial .............................................................................................................................................................. 58 4.2.4 Summary......................................................................................................................................................... 59. 4.3 Analysis of Yi’s Blogging Comments: ...................................................................................................... 60 4.3.1 Comments Left by Yi’s Fans ............................................................................................................................ 60 4.3.2 Comments Left by Visitors ............................................................................................................................. 69 4.3.3 Summary......................................................................................................................................................... 73. 5. CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................. 75 5.1 Summary of results................................................................................................................................. 75 5.2 Discussion ............................................................................................................................................... 78 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................................... 80. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. v. i n U. v.

(9) 1. Introduction 1.1 Research Background and Motivation. “Without convenient personal media, it seems that all the reporting of celebrity gossips and news are mass media’s privilege; however, when blog gets popular, sharing personal life on blog has become celebrities’ new tool to be renowned on cyberspace.” (Business Weekly, 2005). 政治大. Contemporary celebrities are products of mass communication (Boorstin, 1961;. 立. Gamson, 1994; Rein et al, 1987) and symbolic icons created and promoted by the media.. ‧ 國. 學. According to Dyer (1986, p 2), celebrities’ persona is not confined to their professional images, but is composed of everything about them which is publicly available. Thus,. ‧. celebrity is an inter-textual sign formed in multiple ways. People used to form impressions. Nat. sit. y. and images of a celebrity mainly through traditional media such as newspapers, television,. n. al. er. io. radio, gossip magazines, etc. However, as new media technologies have advanced,. i n U. v. Internet-based applications such as blogs, social networking sites, and microblogs, all of. Ch. engchi. which may be referred to as social media 1, have gradually become significant platforms for the molding of celebrity images. When talking about social media, Web 2.0 and User Generated Content (UGC) are two important concepts (Kaplan& Haenlein, 2010). According to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010), Web 2.0 is a term which was developed in 2004 to describe a new way of creating and publishing Internet content and applications. These are no longer produced by one person; instead, they are continuously modified by all users in a participatory fashion. On. 1. According to the definition from Wikipedia, social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue. It includes applications such as blog, wiki, podcast, etc. 1.

(10) the other hand, UGC refers to the various forms of media content that are publicly available and generated by end-users. Thus, based on these two concepts, social media consists of a group of Internet-based applications which are built on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and enable the creation and exchange of UGC (p 61). The interactive nature of social media has opened up a conversation between celebrities and the general public. For example, Lin Yi-Chen (林依晨), a famous Taiwanese actress, once said, “…blogs allow fans to better understand a celebrity” (Apple Daily, 2005). Twitter, the largest microblogging service in the U.S., enables various Hollywood stars to. 政治大 page, share their thoughts, and be “liked” by millions of people. These user-friendly 立 tell the public what they have for breakfast. On Facebook, celebrities can create their own. ‧ 國. 學. interfaces enable celebrities to keep a log of what they are doing in their lives. From what they are working on, to their specific mood at that minute, and even self-promotion,. ‧. celebrities are able to inform the world of anything on their minds with the click of a button.. sit. y. Nat. Thus, traditional media is no longer the only space where a celebrity is molded, and. io. n. al. er. celebrities, just like many of us, have become active content generators.. i n U. v. These interactive platforms also provide the mass media with a new source from. Ch. engchi. which to gather news. In the past, celebrities lacked the means to produce wide-scale publications and they needed to maintain a symbiotic relationship with the mass media to have their latest news delivered to the public. However, the development of these interactive interfaces gives celebrities a new space, other than mass media, where they can get exposure. Celebrities can write diaries, upload photos, post links in a space which they can control. Thus, all of these contents have become an important source of news for the traditional media to write news stories; for example, Liu (2007, p.ii) conducted research on how blogs are used as one of the major sources of entertainment news in Taiwan. She found that Taiwanese reporters go to celebrities’ blogs to dig for newsworthy materials when 2.

(11) celebrities decline to be interviewed or when they have no other means of accessing them. Liu (2007) further suggested that, although the information collected by reporters in this way is not word-of-mouth, it is still considered to be a source of credible information, since it comes from the celebrities or their agents, and represents their official voice. For celebrities, social media is a trustworthy space for them to share information. They can decide the words and phrases to use without worrying that they will be twisted by unauthorized sources. This also prevents the possibility of erroneous words being spoken when faced with the on-the-spot pressure of a microphone.. 政治大 adopted as news material, they also take advantage of this power to voice their opinions. 立 Since celebrities are aware that their updates or publications on the Internet may be. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. The China Times made the following comment regarding this trend:. y. Nat. “Zhou Yu Kou(周玉蔻) and Chen Jian Zhou(陳建州) made their statements on blog regarding the social welfare; Yi Neng Jing (伊能靜) wrote her feeling of. sit. being single on her blog after divorce…blogging news has become so popular. n. al. er. io. among celebrities and their ‘news releases’ are almost as instantaneous as reporters.” (China Times, 2010). Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Celebrities share their private lives using social media. However, the fame of celebrities, the number of viewers and the media attention that follows, has made these social media interfaces different from those operated by ordinary people. In other words, all these private thoughts being shown publicly have become kinds of “performances” that will inevitably be examined by the public and mass media. For example, the YouTube channel of Lady Gaga, one of the most renowned and successful pop stars in recent years, has garnered more than a billion views. She has accumulated over 30 million “Likes” on Facebook and has become the “Queen of Twitter”, 3.

(12) surpassing Britney Spears as the most-followed user on the platform. ThinkTank Digital, the company that organized Gaga’s promotion on social media, pointed out that the main focus of its strategy was a “good balance between promotion and authenticity.” Although Lady Gaga’s Facebook account is operated by a number of people, including Gaga herself, she alone maintains her Twitter account. Elshahawi, the co-founder of the company, said “she didn’t want anything promotional on her Twitter account” (Elshahawi, 2011). This suggests that, if snaps taken of celebrities by the paparazzi enable audiences to peep into their private lives, celebrities’ own social media texts may present another version of the “truth”, which. 政治大 and to create certain images that meet celebrities’ needs. 立. is subtly manufactured to feed the mass media and the audience’s craving for authenticity,. ‧ 國. 學. This public-private nature of celebrities’ social media behavior was also addressed by Holme and Redmond (2006), when they contended that the intensity of the glare and nature. ‧. of surveillance in contemporary society have created a visionary regime which leaves very. sit. y. Nat. little space for stars and celebrities to be “offscreen, out of print and switched off”, and they. io. al. n. the following:. er. are often forced to be continually “in role, in performance, as media beings.” They argued. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. “The constant search for truth—even if it is a search for the ‘lies’ that hide behind the idealized mask of stardom and celebrification—is intensified in an age where new media technologies and new media formats have increased the range and nature of surveillance.” (p.210). Thus, under this ubiquitous surveillance, how a celebrity uses social media, a space where the boundary of public and private blurs, to represent themselves, is the primary motivation for conducting this research.. 4.

(13) 1.2 Research Purpose and Significance There are no previous studies regarding Taiwanese celebrities’ social media behavior. Only Liu (2007) has conducted research analyzing how blogs are used by the Taiwanese press as one of the major sources of entertainment news. Liu’s research (2007) consisted of interviews with celebrities, reporters and editors, but did not directly investigate the text. The “content” deserves more attention in terms of how it helps celebrities to represent themselves in the social media. There are various forms of social media, and in this research, blogs are chosen as the. 政治大. major platform for analysis. Thus the purpose of this study is twofold. Firstly, it intends to. 立. investigate the relationship between celebrities’ blogs, the mass media and audiences in the. ‧ 國. 學. new media era. Celebrities are cultural symbols of society and their manufactured discourse is strongly related to the communication of traditional media. However, when celebrities. ‧. have the personal power to publish and voice their opinions, does this change the way in. Nat. sit. y. which they interact with each other? How do the mass media and audiences perceive and. n. al. er. io. use celebrities’ blog content?. i n U. v. The second purpose of this research is to realize how blogs are used by celebrities. Ch. engchi. to repair their persona when they encounter an image crisis. In the past, they had to rely on the traditional media to repair their image. For example, Benoit (1997) conducted a study which investigated how Hugh Grant, the famous English actor, restored his image when he was caught performing lewd behavior. He (1997) examined Grant’s appearances on TV talk shows in order to identify his image restoration strategies. However, these days, celebrities can also project their voice by using blogs, so when they are blogging, what strategies do they use for image restoration? Are they different from those used in the mass media? By investigating celebrities’ social media contents, this study will be the first benchmark study to analyze the text of celebrities’ social media and their power of 5.

(14) mediation. Most of the analyses of social media have been aimed at ordinary people, and few studies investigate how celebrities make use of their social media content and the possible influence on the mass media and audiences. By analyzing celebrities’ use of social media, this research can be the pilot work for celebrity studies in the new media era.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 6. i n U. v.

(15) 2. Literature Review 2.1 Development of Blogs & Convergence Cultures The following paragraphs will contain a brief description of the origin of the blog and its application in the academic field. This will be followed by an introduction of the change blogs made to traditional media outlets. Then, Henry Jenkin’s idea of convergence cultures will be discussed.. 2.1.1 Definition and elements. 政治大. According to the definition by Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, a blog is “a. 立. website that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often. ‧ 國. 學. hyperlinks provided by the writer; also the contents of such a site”. Blogger.com, one of the. ‧. earliest blogging services, defines a blog as being an “easy-to-use website, where you can quickly post thoughts, interact with people, and more”. Goldsborough (2003) defined a blog. y. Nat. io. sit. as being a space in which people often write in a direct way about their observations,. n. al. er. experiences, thoughts and emotions. Business Week declared that blogs were “the most. Ch. i n U. v. explosive development in the information world since the Net itself” (Baker and Green, 2005).. engchi. A great many researchers have investigated why people blog (Kavanaugh et al., 2006; Nardi et al., 2004b; Efimova, 2004). For example, Nardi et al. (2004) discovered five major motivations for blogging, including recording one’s life, providing opinions and comments, revealing personal emotions, expressing ideas through writing, and maintaining community forums. Efimova (2004) divided blogging into two categories: motivations for starting a blog and maintaining a blog. The first includes: acquiring blogs using experience, exploring more chances in other fields, a communication channel, and a need to express ideas. The second includes: sharing and developing ideas and gaining more skills and knowledge. 7.

(16) Stuart Allan (2006) argued that the rapid growth of blogging followed the 911 terrorist attack in the U.S., when many people were feeling a sense of “dissatisfaction with older, more traditional types of reporting. Voices challenging the preoccupation of mainstream media …were being heard from across the political spectrum and from within every corner of the emergent blogosphere” (p 73). In 2003, Perseus, an Internet survey company, estimated that 4.12 million blogs had been established on eight major blog services, based on its sample of 3,634 blog services. In 2005, the Pew Research Center estimated that 8 million American adults had created blogs, based on a national telephone. 政治大 Basically, the visual expression of a blog can be divided into three parts: a header, a 立. survey conducted in November 2004.. ‧ 國. 學. post column, and a sidebar or sidebars (Lenhart, 2005). The header appears at the top of a blog page and includes the title of the blog, often with a sub-heading. Also, the header may. ‧. contain graphics or images, depending on the design of the blog.. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Figure 1. Research Source: www.wretch.cc/album/teriousmo. Blogs often consist of layouts of one, two, or three columns and the bulk of the blog or the central column usually contains the most frequently-updated posts. This is the part of the blog that makes it different from a static website (Lenhart, 2005). Most blogs contain at least one sidebar, and sometimes more. Sidebars are archives of important but less frequently-updated content. They may contain an image or other graphical representation of 8.

(17) the blogger; a list of links to other blogs, also sometimes called a “blogroll”; lists of favored or currently consumed contents; links to other websites, etc (Lenhart, 2005). She suggested that, on the one hand, sidebars can serve as a navigational tool for readers to search old posts efficiently; on the other hand, when they are coupled with a header, they serve a “scene-setting” function, rendering a sense of “context” to the author of the blog. In addition, the content of the sidebar reveals the blogger’s activities, hobbies and styles (Lenhart, 2005).. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Figure 2. Research Source: www.wretch.cc/album/teriousmo. The bottom of each post often contains a permalink, a comment link and a trackback link. According to Lenhart, permalinks are permanent links to specific blog entries, which enable bloggers or readers to refer back to a specific post in their own blog. Comment links connect readers to the author, and by clicking on the link, interested parties can post their own comments responding to the blog entries that have been posted. They also can read comments posted by other readers. Trackback links are a function whereby bloggers write 9.

(18) about something they have read or seen in another blog and pass a notification back to the first blog with a link to their post (2005). As for the content aspect, Blood (2002) and Herring, et al. (2004) proposed that there are three different styles of blogs: journal style, filter style and knowledge style. Journal style blogs are composed of the blogger’s anecdotes, thoughts and life stories. They tend to be more private and are read by the blogger’s personal networks. Filter style blogs usually provide readers with links which direct them to diverse topics of interest, and bloggers often make subjective observations or explanations regarding topics of interest. Knowledge blogs,. 政治大 in-depth content. Nardi et al. (2004) also distinguished blogs into five categories: blogs as 立. often abbreviated as K-logs, focus on a specific field and provide readers with longer, more. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. journals, as commentaries, as catharsis, as a muse and as community forums.. 2.1.2 Blogging: as Alternative Media. y. Nat. er. io. sit. The rapid development of blogs has provided individuals with the opportunity to become news producers and distributors. As early as 2002, bloggers themselves began to. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. question whether they were a form of “online” journalists (Hiler, 2002a). It is argued that. engchi. bloggers have forced traditional journalists to re-think the exact nature of a journalist and who can be called a journalist, since many bloggers can provide readers with more timely and abundant news stories if the topic is related to their particular expertise. Research shows that many users view blogs as being a new and better form of journalism than the mainstream media; one that is opinionated, analytical, independent and personal (Johnson & Kaye, 2004). For example, people who witnessed incidents such as the 911 attack or the South Asia tsunami wrote stories on their blogs, describing what they had seen and heard, with many valuable pictures or video clips. Since those stories were not 10.

(19) filtered or framed by traditional gatekeepers, most of them were considered to be more real and were able to attract more audiences. John Schwarz, a journalist from the New York Times, declared that “for vivid reporting from the enormous zone of tsunami disaster, it was hard to beat the blogs” (2004). Therefore, the grass-roots nature and user-generated content of blogs have forced traditional media to reconsider the role of their conventional “customers”. Dan Gillmor, the famous American technology writer and author of “We the Media” even said:. 治政大 consumer and as a producer.” 立 (Gillmor, 2004). “For the first time in modern history, the user is truly in charge, as a. ‧ 國. 學 ‧. It is the free, uncensored qualities of the internet which have led to the rapid. sit. y. Nat. development of blogs in many different fields; however, this is also an environment which. io. er. produces problems. Shawn argued that blogospheres are still doubted as spaces where the. al. facts and accuracy of stories can be questioned and debated, while most traditional. n. v i n journalistic ethics, such as balance,Cfairness, thoroughness are not considered (2005). h e n and gchi U. Bloggers do not need to bear the responsibility of being “the fourth state”, so they can cite or publish articles without considering or investigating their accuracy in advance, which may lower the overall credibility of blogs as a news source. Drezner et al. (2004) also argued that blogs are just an alternative source of news and commentaries for audiences, especially in those countries where the mainstream media is controlled by the government. According to them, most bloggers have limited sources of news coverage, and often follow the agenda set by the mainstream media. Rebecca MacKinnon, a former CNN reporter and co-founder of the Global Voice Online, indicated 11.

(20) that a complimentary relationship, rather than a hostile one, should be established between blogs and traditional media. She suggested that bloggers all around the world could act as news sources for journalists or fact-checkers; on the other hand, journalists could play the role of gate-keeper and examine the reliability of blogging information.. 2.1.3 Convergence Culture Henry Jenkins wrote “Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide” (2006), in which he illustrated that new media interacted with old media in a complex. 政治大. relationship, which he called a “Convergence Culture”, and that this new way of interaction. 立. influences the relationship between audiences, mass media and content. He proposed three. ‧ 國. 學. critical notions in the book, including the convergence of the media, a participatory culture, and collective intelligence. In terms of the convergence of the media, he indicated that. ‧. convergence represents a shift in cultural logic, and consumers are encouraged to look for. y. Nat. sit. new information and make connections between diverse media content. Convergence can. n. al. er. io. not only be understood to be a technological process. As for a participatory culture, he saw. i n U. v. media producers and consumers as participants interacting according to the new rules, about. Ch. engchi. which none of us have a clear understanding. These big companies or people working in the media still exert greater influence than individual consumers, but some consumers are demonstrating more skill than others in the convergence culture. In respect of collective intelligence, he suggested that consumption has become a collective process. Although none of us can know everything, each of us knows something, and by pooling individuals’ resources and skills, collective intelligence can be an alternative source of media power (p 3-4). Jenkins (2006) argued that, in the convergence culture, corporate media has gradually recognized both the value of fan participation and the threat it poses. Fans use new media 12.

(21) technologies to actively engage with old media content and see the Internet as a vehicle for collective problem-solving, public deliberation, and grassroots creativity (p 169). Thus, the interplay and tension between the top-down corporate-driven process and the bottom-up consumer-driven process have resulted in many changes in the convergence culture. Sometimes these two forces are complimentary, but sometimes they are at war with each other. For example, prohibitionism and collaborationism are two particular responses accorded by Jenkins to describe the interaction between the two forces. The former describes media outlets which adopt a scorched-earth policy toward their consumers, trying. 政治大 The latter refers to those which are experimenting with new approaches, and see fans as 立. to control and criminalize many forms of fan participation that used to fall below their radar.. crucial collaborators in the production of content and as grassroots intermediaries helping to. ‧ 國. 學. promote the franchise (p 134). He argued that, eventually, the prohibitionist position will be. ‧. ineffective and media companies will have to respect the growing public consensus of what. sit. y. Nat. constitutes the fair use of media content, and they will have to allow the public to. io. er. participate meaningfully in their own culture.. Compared to the past, when people were powerless to make any difference to mass. al. n. v i n media text, the voices of consumersC are much more easilyUheard in the convergence culture. hengchi. The participation and positive engagement of audiences may change the way they receive and interact with the media.. 2.2 Celebrities and media The term “celebrity” and its definition will be introduced in the following paragraphs, after which Dyer’s work, “stars”, will be discussed in order to better understand the context of celebrities’ studies. Finally, outline celebrities’ interesting relationship with the mass media will be outlined.. 13.

(22) 2.2.1 Definitions and characteristics of celebrities According to the Cambridge on-line Dictionary, the word celebrity is defined as “someone who is famous, especially in the entertainment business,” and as “the state of being famous.” It originates from the Latin word, ‘celebrem’, which suggests “fame” and “being thronged”. The Latin root indicates a relationship in which a person is marked out as possessing singularity and a social structure where the characteristics of fame are fleeting (Rojek, 2001). The most widely-quoted definition of celebrity was given by cultural historian Daniel Boorstin (1961), who said:. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. “The celebrity is a person who is known for his well-knowness…He is neither good nor bad, great nor pretty. He is the human pseudo-event…The hero was distinguished by his achievement; the celebrity by his image or trademark. The hero created himself; the celebrity is created by the media. The hero was a big man; the celebrity is a big name.” (Boorstin 47, 57, 61). sit. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. Although just being “known” seems like an easy standard for distinction, in the. i n U. v. contemporary celebrity landscape, a celebrity cannot be distinguished merely because he or. Ch. engchi. she is “known”. According to Rojek (2001), the definition of celebrity can be referred to as a more fleeting concept of fame. Geraghty (2000) suggested that ‘meaningful’ distinctions and hierarchies to address the state of ‘being famous’ have diminished, and fame can also be referred to as the private life of a person, instead of his or her performing presence (p 187, cited from Holmes 2005). Neal Gabler (2001) made a similar statement, arguing that “popularity is only the by-product of celebrity, not its source” (p 5). He made an interesting comparison as follows:. “Queen Elizabeth is certainly famous, but one doubts whether most Americans 14.

(23) would call her a celebrity the way Princess Di was. George Bush, Sr. is famous, but he is not a celebrity. His successor Bill Clinton is. Vice President Dick Cheney is famous, but he is no celebrity. There are no paparazzi elbowing one another aside to snap Cheney’s picture, no swooning Cheney fans crying out, “Dick, Dick,” most of all no Cheney stories filling the tabloids.” (p.4, 2001). According to Gabler, a celebrity is “…a person who, by the very process of living, provides. entertainment. for. us—a. definition. that. embraces. most. conventional. entertainers…whose lives fill the gossip columns and magazines.” Thus, it is not only limited to traditional entertainers; instead, those who can provide people and media with. 政治大. “narratives that have entertainment value”, can be considered to be celebrities.. 立. The academic field contains various interpretations of the definition and concept of. ‧ 國. 學. celebrity status. Bonner suggested that celebrity status can function to indicate how the. ‧. media contexts of fame are now less specific, with individual celebrities rarely restricted to. sit. y. Nat. a single media form (2005:65). According to Rojek, “celebrity = impact on public. io. er. consciousness” (2001:10), whereas Geraghty perceived celebrity status to be a broader redefinition of the public/private boundary, and the primary consideration is increasingly a. al. n. v i n C hthan their professional person’s “private” life or lifestyle rather role (2000). Turner made the engchi U following comment:. We can map the precise moment a public figure becomes a celebrity. It occurs at the point at which media interest in their activities is transferred from reporting on their public role…to investigating the detail of their private lives. (2004: 8, cited from Holmes and Redmond, 2006). Rein, Kotler and Stoller (1987:15) defined two important characteristics of celebrities: large-scale public attention, which is the publicity celebrities experience and the positive 15.

(24) emotional responses elicited from the public. However, Gabler (2001) suggested that, apart from publicity and emotional responses, “foundation narrative” is also a suitable prerequisite of celebrities, and as long as a figure has an interesting “narrative” to be written about, he or she already has the basic premise to be considered as being a celebrity.. 2.2.2 Stars studied by Richard Dyer Richard Dyer’s work, Stars, written in 1979, is considered to be the authoritative discourse in the study of celebrity. Dyer famously argued the analyses of stars in the realm. 政治大. of representation and ideology, suggesting that stars could be understood as being “signs”,. 立. read as “texts” and “images”, and investigated the use of semiotics (Barker, 2003: 6, cited. ‧ 國. 學. from Holmes & Redmond, 2006). Their images can be seen as intertextual constructions because they are produced via the sharing and linking of meanings between different. ‧. sources of star texts. Thus, when the star-as-a person is substituted by the star-as-image, the. y. Nat. n. al. Ch. er. io. materials where the images of stars are circulated.. sit. significance of particular stars lies in how they are constructed through the tangible textual. i n U. v. According to Dyer (1998), the search for the “authentic” person behind that. engchi. manufactured mask of fame is the important factor of fandom and the construction of stars and celebrities. He argued that celebrities are produced by the assertion that their private selves are behind the public image, but these assertions “take place in one of the aspects of modern life that is most associated with the invasion and destruction of the inner self[…] namely the mass media” (1987:89). For example, people buy gossip magazines and tabloids to find out about the “private lives” of celebrities, even if they are reflected in a negative light, involving such elements as lies, violence, drunkenness, and so on. Although audiences cannot make media images mean anything they want to, they can still choose from within to find the image that “works for them”(Dyer 1986, p 5). 16.

(25) This complexity is the basis of the fan/star/celebrity relationship (Holmes, Redmond, 2006), and it offers fans “the ultimate sign of availability—the unlicensed display of their naked bodies” (Turner, 2004:125). According to Holmes (2004), “the famous” are increasingly brought into view through what is presented or reported and perceived to be an ‘unmediated’ close-up of their actual lived experience. Therefore, when celebrities are operating a social media platform, they seem to be providing fans and the public with another channel to know who they “really are”, whether it presents their lives, behavior, interior selves, or is just a strategy for greater celebrification. This direct contact has. 政治大 Dyer (1979) indicated that a star image can only represent an identity produced and 立. enhanced the intimacy between the celebrity and the fan.. ‧ 國. 學. circulated via channels of mass communication, and can never be a straightforward portrayal of the real personality of a star. Yet, this does not mean that the star image is. ‧. untrue or inauthentic; instead, star images are the only access by which the public knows a. n. a. er. io. sit. y. Nat. star, and the truth or reality of any star is in the image [emphasis added].. 2.2.3 Celebrities and mass lmedia. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. In the early stage, celebrities were limited to figures such as political and religious elites; yet, with the growth of art and technology, by the middle of the 19th century, celebrity was considered as a “mass – and more democratic – phenomenon” (emphasis added, Gamson, 2001). The Hollywood studio system made “star quality” and “talent”, rather than “greatness”, the defining quality of celebrities (Gamson, 2001: 264). The explosion of media outlets in the second half of the twentieth century turned fame into a manufactured discourse, suggesting that celebrities are produced and made, not “born” (Holmes, 2006). This manufactured nature of stars and celebrities is one of the over-riding discourses that contemporary fame is circulated and interpreted (Gamson, 1994). 17.

(26) The “body” of a star or celebrity is key to the search for the “truth" behind those stars and celebrities (Holmes and Redmond, 2006), and the suffering and damage caused by fame is an increasingly prevalent trend in the production and consumption of stars, celebrities, and personalities (Redmond, 2006). In an environment where stars and celebrities are manufactured, people tend to seek their unmediated, natural, even flawed images because that makes them feel more intimate and close. These naked, stripped images not only draw people closer to the damaged star or celebrity, but also render the potential of the appearance of resistant behavior. For example, when a celebrity’s image is damaged, he or. 政治大 as being similarly damaged, and thus construct resistant, symbiotic “relationships”, which 立. she often shapes an immediate connection to his or her fans, who often consider themselves. counter the dominant ideology (ibid, p 40).. ‧ 國. 學. Nowadays, celebrities are no longer confined within specific media. Instead, their. ‧. images are demonstrated through different channels and consumed by folk in general. sit. y. Nat. (Holmes, 2005). In the past, these channels referred to traditional media such as newspapers,. io. er. television, magazines, etc; however, today, the Internet and its related applications have. al. v i n C directly negotiate Uwith their favorite celebrities or time and space and enables fans to h engchi n. become a crucial platform for celebrities to be represented, since it eliminates the barriers of. characters. Holmes and Redmond (2006) said:. New and old media technologies have enabled stars and celebrities to be endlessly circulated, replayed, downloaded and copied. Their images, qualities and cultural values are found almost everywhere, invading many areas of social life…the digital and the virtual media technologies have also opened up the number of spaces where the star or desire can be found out, re-written, and seen in the flesh as they really are. (p.4). 18.

(27) Thus, as more new media outlets are emerging, traditional media can no longer maintain its indefinite power over the interpretation of celebrities. Celebrities themselves can also actively engage in the shaping of their images.. 2.3 Self-Presentation and Image Restoration Discourse Goffman’s work and his main idea regarding self-presentation will be briefly. 政治大 in on-line words and the off-line sphere, as well as celebrities’ self-presentation online. 立. presented in this section, before turning to the difference between people’s self-presentation. ‧ 國. 學. Finally, the image restoration discourses developed by Benoit (1995) will be introduced, together with the research questions.. ‧ y. Nat. er. io. sit. 2.3.1 Self Presentation Offline. In 1959, Eriving Goffman’s work, ‘The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life’,. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. famously addressed the phenomenon of self-presentation and impression management. He. engchi. used metaphors from theatrical performances to analyze human behavior in social interactions. The basic premise of his theory is “the meaning of people’s doings is to be found in the manner in which they express themselves in interaction with similarly expressive others” (Brissett & Edgley, 1990: 2-3; italics in original, cited from Gardner & Avolio, 1998). People perform their identities through playing different roles on stage, and thus reach a consensus between themselves and their audiences. The main purpose of the performance is to maintain a specific impression during the interaction by continuing to enforce and interpret the role they try to play, thus giving others an idea of what to expect of them. The performance is influenced by both environmental factors and the audience. 19.

(28) According to Goffman, people are actors, who try to form the desired impression in their encounters or interaction with others. People create impressions via what Goffman calls sign vehicles, which includes our languages given and given off (Goffman 1959: 13-14). The former is more verbal and explicit, such as gestures, facial expressions, etc., and the main goal is to disseminate messages that both the performer and the audience know about. The latter is more unconscious and often related to self-characteristics, and it is more likely to be a stimulus instead of a specific message, such as one’s gender, ethnicity, etc. From Goffman’s perspective, people’s actions can be divided into the front region and. 政治大 audience are present. According to Goffman, the front region is the place where people try 立 back region. The front region is where the performance takes place, and both performers and. ‧ 國. 學. their best to demonstrate themselves, to fit into the expectations of society and the role they play. For example, a flight attendant will try her best to maintain a polite manner when she is. ‧. dealing with a very rude customer. However, when she goes back to her kitchen, she may. sit. y. Nat. complain about the problem customer. The kitchen would be the flight attendant’s back. io. er. region, where the performers are present, but the audience is not. Goffman defines the back. al. v i n C h 114). In here, U knowingly contradicted” (Goffman, 1959: e n g c h i performers can relax, drop their act, n. region as “a place, relative [to] the performance, where the impression of the performance is. and take themselves out of the character, and the contradiction does not necessarily mean the opposite of what is seen in the front stage; instead, it could be a significant difference in the role the person is playing. Thus, people can calculate their activity and consciously express themselves in a particular way, making their audience believe that “the character they see actually possesses the attributes he or she appears to possess” (Goffman, 1959, p 17). Goffman divides impression management techniques into three categories: “defensive measures used by performers to save their own show; protective measures used by the audience and outsiders to 20.

(29) assist the performers to save their show; and, finally, the measures performers must take in order to make it possible for the audience and outsiders to employ protective measures on the performers’ behalf” (p 212). He further stresses that, although people are usually what they appear to be, it is possible that such appearances could still be managed and controlled. (ibid, cited from Trammell & Keshelashvili, 2005) Jones conceptualized self-presentation into five strategies including ingratiation, competence, intimidation, supplication and exemplification. Researchers have found that ingratiation and competence are the major strategies used in off-line and online contexts. 政治大 Dominick (1999), defines these strategies as follows: 立. (Bortee, 2005, Jones, 1990, Trammell& Keshelashvili, 2005). Based on Jones’ division,. ‧ 國. 學. Ingratiation: A person who uses this strategy has the goal of being liked by others. Some. ‧. common characteristics of ingratiation are saying positive things about others or saying. y. Nat. er. io. sit. mildly negative things about yourself, making modest, familiar, and humorous statements. Competence: The goal of this strategy is to be perceived as being skilled and qualified.. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. Common characteristics include claims about abilities, accomplishments, performance, and qualifications.. engchi. Intimidation: People using this strategy have power as their goal. Typical characteristics are threats, statements of anger, and potential unpleasantness. Exemplification: The goal of this strategy is to be perceived as being morally superior or possessing high moral standards. Typical characteristics include ideological commitment or militancy for a cause, self sacrifice, and self-discipline. Supplication: The goal of this strategy is to be nurtured or appearing to be helpless so that others will come to your aid. Typical characteristics of this self-presentational approach 21.

(30) include entreaties for help and self-deprecation. (Dominick 1999, p. 648). 2.3.2 Self-Presentation Online The asynchronous and anonymous nature of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) makes online self-presentation more adaptable to self-censorship than face-to-face self-presentation (Ellison et al, 2006; Walther, 1996). The emphasis on verbal and linguistic cues over non-verbal communication cues in CMC contexts enable individuals to choose the aspects they want to reveal, and help them to achieve image optimization through direct. 政治大. textual expressions or indirect expressions, such as hyperlinks, images, animations, types of. 立. colors and fonts (Boyd & Ellison, 2007; Papacharissi, 2002a).. ‧ 國. 學. Papacharissi (2002a, 2002b) employed a content analysis and surveys to investigate the. ‧. utility of personal home pages for their creators. The findings showed that the main aims of Web page authors are to provide information and entertainment. However, some users still. y. Nat. er. io. sit. use Web pages for self-expression and communication with family and friends, especially when other forms of communication are not available or cannot satisfy their needs.. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. Papacharissi (2004) then conducted a similar study on blogs to investigate their personal and. engchi. social utility, descriptive dimensions and speculated uses and gratification obtained from blogs. The results showed that blogs usually “feature personalized accounts of information that resemble the daily format” (p 20), and most blogs are self-reflexive accounts, which serve a purpose of personal expression and render the perceived gratification of self-fulfillment. They also enable individuals to play with the desire to have personal diaries published, fulfilling their personal gratification, publicity, and perhaps a sense of assurance that these private thoughts matter (Papacharissi, 2004). Thus, they not only spaces to write, but an interesting paradoxical combination of private and public information. She argued:. 22.

(31) [blog] challenges our conventional understanding of the private and public sphere and follows in the tradition of new media technologies that empower the individual to project personal experiences, usually considered private, to a mass audience. Blogs allow the private domain to become public and privatize a portion of the public sphere…Blogs are written to be read. (p.35-p.36). This was also reflected by Boyd (2006), who suggested that bloggers view their blogs as being their online identity and digital representation, which renders blogs a sense of. 政治大. corporeality. Borrowing Goffman’s perspective, she said:. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. …in a Goffman (1959) sense, the blog is one’s digital face, showing the traces of past expressions, revealing both what the blogger brings to the front stage and what aspects of the backstage slip through. (p.17). A tension appears between spatiality and corporeality when there are differences in. y. Nat. sit. the perception of bloggers and readers (Boyd, 2006). She contends that the blog is corporeal. n. al. er. io. for the blogger, but for the reader, it is a space for conversation. Although bloggers are well. i n U. v. aware of the public nature of their performance, there is still an understanding of a private. Ch. engchi. body in the public blogging world. Thus, the blog is more like an extension of the blogger rather than a place to visit. She used the body as a metaphor for a blog, saying that “we view our bodies as private space in public, just as we view our blogs” (p 19). She said:. The willingness to be public and engage in conversations brings out the spatial aspects of blogging, while the more private protective tendencies emphasize the corporeal nature. Through blogs, the public and private are also blurred and the public is simultaneously expanding across space and time. As a medium, blogs are challenging accepted dichotomies and inviting practitioners to explore the boundaries of these limits through engagement and performance. (Boyd, p.19) 23.

(32) “That also explains why bloggers tend to develop a sense of ownership in that they can decide what should appear on the blog. Because whatever others write will not only affect the blog, but also the bloggers’ representation”. Trammell (2005) analyzed impression management tactics and self-presentation on popular A-list blogs, based on Goffman’s constructs of self-presentation and impression management strategies. She found that A-list bloggers disclose more information about themselves than others, and actively engage in impression management. Ellison et al. (2006). 政治大 responded to small cues online, 立 as well as mediated the tension between impression. investigated the self-presentation strategies of online dating participants and found that they. ‧ 國. 學. management pressures and the desire to present an authentic self through strategies such as creating a profile that reflected their “ideal self”.. ‧. Stern & Taylor (2007) investigated Facebook users’ self-presentation and suggested. y. Nat. sit. that most of the users accurately present themselves in their profiles. Their studies showed. n. al. er. io. that 74% of Facebook users said that their profile was accurately presented, 23% said that. i n U. v. their profile somewhat represented them, and only 3% said that their profile did not. Ch. engchi. represent them. They indicated that the high rate of accurate self-presentation was because Facebook users tended to allow everyone to see their profiles. Hultin’s (1990) research into Bulletin Board System (BBS) messages discovered that participants in CMC create and individualize online characters through self-presentation. Soukup (2004) found that a dramaturgical perspective is valuable to researchers when exploring CMC (p 198), and the performance of CMC participants is closely related to the development and presentation of self, the construction of virtual dramas, and the formation of non-verbal communication expectancies (p 196).. 24.

(33) 2.3.3 On-line Self-Presentation of Celebrities Sanderson. (2008). examined. Boston. Red. Sox. pitcher,. Curt. Schilling’s. self-presentation strategies in blog format and indicated that blogs are an important advocacy tool that celebrities can use to counteract negative media framing of their persona, by providing audiences with a space where celebrities can carefully manage their image and control the way in which their image is portrayed to the public. Also, it enables celebrities to convey their self-presentation to the public without being physically present, while ensuring that their self-presentation messages reach a large number of people. The image portrayed. 政治大 the chance to accurately perceive their identities. 立. by these messages may contradict their portrayal in the mass media and offer blog readers. ‧ 國. 學. Marshall (2010) suggested that the development of the Internet has made the influence of traditional media such as television and films less profound and less. ‧. omnipresent, and perhaps more remediated through online pathways. Social networking as a. sit. y. Nat. form of cultural production and a type of public engagement has made itself simultaneously. io. er. a media and a communication form. What connects it to celebrity is that, as long as there is. al. v i n C h the self. Therefore, a constitutive and organic production of e n g c h i U a celebrity’s profile, image, and n. an exchange and dissemination of ideas and links to other media or other cyber sources, it is. message can become his or her online mask and “a construction of character for a kind of ritual of the performance of the self” (p 38). He used an example of Vin Diesel, the famous Hollywood actor, who has more than 7 million fans on Facebook, and said that it is important for Diesel to disclose something of his professional self in relation to his private self, and he is managing to construct a persona related to his heroic image in films. The following is a message left by Van Diesel on September 28, 2009: Special lunch meeting where my father said something so dead on…He said…’confidence is the most important thing you can teach someone…if you 25.

(34) can teach them confidence, you don’t have to teach them anything else’…Thanks for the love. (Diesel, 2009, cited from Marshall, p40) When Van Diesel tries to personalize his posts, he is actually using Facebook as a public, accessible diary. The inter-communication dimension of on-line social networking platforms has created a new need for celebrities to stay connected to an audience and the public. Marshall (2010) further distinguished three ways in which the self is presented in online culture and to the wider public by celebrities, namely, the public self, the public private self,. and the transgressive, intimate self (p 44, p 45).. 政治大 model of the individual; for example, 立 release dates of recordings and films, premieres and. The public self is the official version of how the celebrity is portrayed as an industrial. ‧ 國. 學. appearances, the way to get tickets for a special appearance, etc. Celebrities’ official websites used to do this work; however, since more and more people are using social. ‧. networking sites to look for information, there is a tendency to use these sites as. sit. y. Nat. quasi-official versions of the public self. Marshall (2006) further noted that some of these. al. n. cultural commodity.. er. io. sites are managed by their publicity assistants to maintain the public persona as a valued. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. As for public-private self, this is the version of the self celebrities portray, or at least appear to portray, in the world of social networking. For example, Twitter, a microblog service that allows people to publish short messages to those who follow it, has become the vehicle for many celebrities to maintain a public-private self. It helps the public to identify the thoughts or location of a celebrity. Marshall (2006) contends that for some celebrities, the self-negotiation of the public-private self wrests the control of the economy of their public persona. Also, the value of the public-private self is still being determined, since individuals make different decisions about the parts of their lives they are willing to convey to the public online. 26.

(35) The transgressive intimate self indicates the self motivated by temporary emotion; it is also the kind of information/image that passes throughout cyberspace because of its “visceral” quality of being closer to the core of the being. For example, Elizabeth Taylor’s Twitter posts revealed her grief-stricken self as a result of Michael Jackson’s death. Marshall (2006) suggested that the transgressive intimate self travels quickly back into the representative media culture and entertainment reports on celebrities. Thus, it is a faster way to notoriety and attention in the world of on-line culture for all users and for celebrities whose “behavioral transgressions expressed in interpersonal registers move swiftly into the. 政治大 2.3.4 Image Restoration Discourse 立 powerful viral on-line juggernaut” (p 45).. ‧ 國. 學. According to Gotsi and Wilson (2001), image represents the sum of beliefs, attitudes, and impressions that a person or a group of stakeholders has toward an object. Benoit. ‧. (1997a) argued that image is the perception of a person (or group, or organization) held by. Nat. sit. y. the audience, which is shaped by the words and actions of that person, as well as by the. n. al. er. io. discourse and behavior of other relevant actors. Schlenker (1980) also indicated that. i n U. v. individuals form an image of the actor involved based on the information made available to. Ch. engchi. them, and certain predicaments can “damage” one’s identity and “adversely affect the relationship with the audience”. In the past, the major channel for audiences to perceive the image of a celebrity was through the traditional media; however, since celebrities have begun to operate their own blogs, they have provided their audience with an extra channel to discover and explore information, and thus, a new space to shape their image. By combining typologies from previous researchers (Burke, 1970; Scott & Lyman, 1968; Rosenfield, 1968; Ware& Linkugel, 1973), Benoit (1995) developed the image restoration theory, which included five self-defense approaches: denial, evading responsibility, reducing offensiveness, corrective action, and mortification. These are 27.

(36) described in detail below.. Denial When accused of performing an inappropriate act, one may simply deny that the act took place (Ware & Linkugel, 1973). It is also possible that one may admit to performing the act, but claim that it was far from being harmful (Brinson& Benoit, 1996). Therefore, Burke (1970) proposed the notion of “victimage”, which suggests that the third party actually performed the offensive act. Evading Responsibility. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. This strategy has four categories, including provocation, defeasibility, accidents and good intentions. Provocation suggests that the accused can claim that his or her action was. ‧. performed in response to an offensive act perpetrated by another party (Scott and Lyman,. sit. y. Nat. 1968). Defeasibility indicates that the wrongdoing was due to a lack of information or. io. er. control over the situation (Schonbach, 1980; Semin & Manstead, 1983). It is also possible. al. that the accused will refer to the wrongdoing as being an accident, and insist that he or she. n. v i n C h& Lyman, 1968; Semin should not be reprimanded for it (Scott e n g c h i U & Manstead, 1983). Finally,. the accused may state that the offensive behavior was perpetrated with good intentions, and that his or her responsibility should be alleviated (Ware & Linkugel, 1973). Reducing offensiveness There are six strategies in this category. Firstly, the accused may use bolstering to enhance a positive image, and thus offset the negative impacts of the wrongful act. Secondly, by minimizing the association between the negative feelings and the offensive act, it is possible that the reputation of the accused can be regained (Schonbach, 1980; Schlenker, 1980; Semin & Manstead, 1983). The differentiation strategy argues that the accused may 28.

(37) perpetrate another act, which is similar but less harmful toward his or her image in order to shift the focus of the audience (Ware & Linkugel, 1973). The fourth strategy is transcendence (Ware & Linkugel, 1973), which suggests that the accused justify his or her behavior by putting it in a more favorable context, thus reducing the negative impact (Schonbach, 1980; Schlenker, 1980; Tedeschi & Reiss, 1981; Semin & Manstead, 1983). The fifth strategy is to reduce the credibility of the accuser. If the accused can make his or her audience believe that the accusation is unconvincing, the damage may be somewhat mitigated (Rosenfield, 1968; Scott & Lyman, 1968). Finally, compensation suggests that the. 政治大 this reparation, the negative image will be alleviated (Schonbach, 1980). 立. accused may make up for the harm caused by the offensive act, and if the audience accepts. ‧ 國. 學. Corrective action. This strategy attempts to repair the image of the accused and restore it to the state before the. ‧. offensive event occurred and/or to prevent it from happening again. If the accused is willing. Nat. sit. n. al. er. io. enhanced.. y. to correct or prevent the offensive act, his or her positive image and reputation will be. Mortification. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Finally, Burke indicated that, if the accused chooses to admit to committing the offensive act and offers an authentic apology, the audience may choose to forgive him or her for perpetrating the act (1970, 1973). Benoit’s theory is based on the premise “that human beings engage in recurrent patterns of communicative behaviors designed to reduce, redress, or avoid damage to their reputation (or face or image) from perceived wrong-doing” (1995a, p.vii). He (1997) conducted research to investigate the image restoration discourse used by Hugh Grant, the famous British actor, when he was arrested in Hollywood for lewd behavior with a 29.

(38) prostitute. He discovered that it was easier and usually more effective for entertainers to adopt a mortification strategy compared with politicians and corporations. Benoit (1997) argued that entertainers are less likely to have third parties make or prolong attacks in the media, which is often the predicament faced by politicians and corporations. Also, admitting mistakes in the political or business world is risky because this often arouses the distrust of constituents or the failure of lawsuits. Huang (2006) explored the effect of crisis communication strategies (CCS) by investigating how politicians’ images are demonstrated in media coverage during a crisis,. 政治大 based on Bradford and Garrett’s. which is considered to be a crucial factor of the public’s perception of political actors, issues. 立. and events. Her research was. (1995) corporative. ‧ 國. 學. communicative response model, which includes two basic assumptions. Firstly, it is assumed that the accusation is actively transmitted by the accusing actor and/or news media,. ‧. so that third parties begin to notice the allegations. Secondly, it is assumed that the third. io. n. al. er. the allegation if they believe that the accuser has low credibility.. sit. y. Nat. parties have the ability to evaluate or consider the validity of the accusation and can reject. i n U. v. The fundamental attribution error and discounting principle are the two major themes. Ch. engchi. of the theory. Jones and Nisbett (1971) suggested that the fundamental attribution error is the tendency of third parties to attribute the responsibility for negative actions to the personal characteristics of the actor involved (e.g., greed, selfishness), and if the actor does not provide the third parties with sufficient situational information and/or positive dispositional information (i.e., values, standards), they may make the wrong assumption about the actor’s behavior. As for discounting principle, Kelley (1973) argued that a negative disposition may be discounted as being responsible for any action if other convincing explanations are presented. Therefore, if an accused actor can provide third parties with plausible information, they may use the information to re-evaluate their 30.

(39) judgment.. 2.3.5 Research Questions Based on the research purposes and literature review, the following three research questions are proposed: RQ1 What are the image repair strategies used by celebrities in blogs during an image crisis?. 政治大. RQ2 How do mass media react to a celebrity’s image repair strategies in blogs? What are. 立. the best strategies to post?. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. RQ3 How do audiences take a position between celebrities’ blogs and mass media reports?. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 31. i n U. v.

(40) 3. Research Method This study uses a content analysis to investigate celebrities’ self-presentation on social media platforms, as well as its influence on mass media and audiences. Berelson (1952) defined a content analysis as “a research technique for the objective, systematic, and quantitative description of manifest content of communities.” Ole Holsti (1961) defined a content analysis as “any technique for making inferences by objectively and systematically identifying specified characteristics of messages”. It combines quantitative and qualitative research and is suitable for large amounts of data. A content analysis can be represented by. 政治大. sets of procedures including: 1) data collection and selection, 2) distinguishing categories, 3). 立. deciding units of analysis, 4) deciding the context of analysis, 5) establishing a system of. ‧ 國. 學. enumeration, 6) making an analysis. These six procedures have to be analyzed step by step (吳明清, 2002), and they are detailed below.. ‧ y. Nat. n. er. io. al. sit. 3.1 Data Selection and Collection. i n U. v. Yi Neng Jing (Yi hereafter) and the Apple Daily newspaper are chosen as a case study. Ch. engchi. for several reasons, the first of which is that Yi fits the standard as a celebrity. According to Gabler’s definition (2001), a celebrity is “…a person who, by the very process of living, provided. entertainment. for. us—a. definition. that. embraced. most. conventional. entertainers…whose lives fill the gossip columns and magazines.” According to Wikipedia, Yi has been in the Taiwanese entertainment field since 1986 and is widely known in Taiwan, China and Hong Kong. She has released 28 records and acted in 17 dramas and 13 films. She was nominated as Best Actress in the 32nd Golden Horse Awards, the main major film festival in Taiwan. Yi is also a writer. Her book “Words of Life and Death” (生死遺言) was a bestseller in Taiwan for 22 consecutive weeks. She married Harlem Yu (庾澄慶), also a 32.