“By listening to their music am I celebrating a paedophile?” - Moral Crusades, the Media and the creation of an Appropriate Audience (original) (raw)
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The Celebrity Icon Mask: The Multi-Institutional Masking of Sir Jimmy Savile
Cultural Sociology , 2021
The aim of this article is to develop the concepts of masks and masking to interrogate the role of institutions in the co-production of 'untouchable' celebrity icon status. The empirical focus is the multi-institutional masking of Sir Jimmy Savile OBE KCSG. For decades, Savile was celebrated as one of the UK's best-loved celebrity icons. One year after his death, he was exposed as a serial sexual predator. We argue that the largely compartmentalised official reports on Savile have presented a partial analysis. They have emphasised the importance of Savile's celebrity status while taking it for granted, downplayed the significance of his moral standing in British society, and marginalised the proactive, enabling role of the BBC, the NHS and the British establishment. However manipulative the individual, we propose that it was Savile's cumulative multi-institutional masking as celebrity personality (the BBC), celanthropist (the NHS) and, ultimately, celebrity icon (the British establishment) that co-produced his 'untouchable' status and enabled him for decades to deflect and discredit rumour, gossip and allegations about his sexually predatory behaviour. We conclude by reflecting on the 'researchability' of powerful elites, and by suggesting how our analysis might inform further research into the power dynamics that have co-produced the 'untouchability' of other celebrities subsequently exposed as serial sexual predators.
A paedophile scandal foretold: Sir Jimmy Savile, child sexual abuse and the BBC
2012
Trial by media and scandal amplification In recent decades in the UK, there has been a decline in public deference to authority, trust in government, the credibility of expert knowledge, and confidence in criminal justice. Simultaneously, the communications marketplace has undergone technological and economic transformations that are forcing radical adaptations from traditional news media, particularly the press, in order to survive. Two interconnected adaptations are the rise of 'trial by media' and the commodification of 'scandal'. 'Trial by media' (henceforth TBM) is a market-driven form of multi-dimensional, interactive, populist justice in which individuals are exposed, tried, judged and sentenced in the 'court of public opinion' (Greer and Mclaughlin, 2011). The nature and target of such trials can be diverse, ranging from the hounding of public figures deemed to be professionally, politically and/or morally 'suspect', to prejudging the outcome of legal proceedings against 'unknowns'. In each case, the news media behave as a proxy for 'public opinion' and seek to exercise parallel functions of 'justice' to fulfil a role perceived to lie beyond the interests or capabilities of formal institutional authority. Due process and journalistic objectivity can give way to sensationalist, moralising speculation about the actions and motives of those who stand accused in the media spotlight. Judicial scrutiny of 'hard evidence' yields ground to 'real time' dissemination of disclosures from 'well placed sources'. The default position is 'guilty until proven innocent', and the burden of proving innocence correspondingly rests with the accused. The outcomes of TBM vary from a chilling of public sentiments towards the 'accused', through irreversible 'spoiled identity', public apology and official resignation, to criminal prosecution. TBM is legitimated commercially by increased circulation and web traffic, professionally by journalistic plaudits and awards, and politically by its potential to destroy private lives and public careers (Culture Media and Sport Committee, 2010). TBM can thus be used by newspapers simultaneously to further commercial and ideological agendas. The political and commercial force of 'trial by media' over individual-level transgressions is enhanced still further when it can be connected with system-level notions of institutional failure and 'scandal' (Greer and Mclaughlin, 2011; 2012a; 2012c). A 'scandal' takes shape as rumours and allegations of moral and/or legal transgression harden into accusations and complaints that are expressed publicly (see also Thompson, 2000). If the alleged transgressions are sufficiently newsworthy and the negative social reaction sufficiently intense and widespread, the individual(s) or institution(s) at the centre of the 'scandal' will be subject to 'trial by media'. The process of 'trial by media' may expose further transgressions or uncover scandalous connections to other actors or institutions, simultaneously consolidating and amplifying the significance and implications of the original scandal. Current political, economic and cultural conditions coalesce in the creation of a journalistic field that promotes the connection of individual transgression with institutional failure, and the association of one scandal with another. The result is a fluid and continual process of news consolidation and amplification which, under the right conditions, gives rise to what we call a 'scandal amplification spiral' (Greer and McLaughlin, 2012b).
Policing Elvis: Legal Action and the Shaping of Post-Mortem Celebrity Culture as Contested Space
Entertainment Law, 2003
Celebrity cultures have their own careers during and beyond the lives of their creators. While they are shaped primarily by creativity and sustained by market forces, no sooner is celebrity created than it becomes a contested space and a power struggle ensues. This article explores the use of legal and quasi-legal actions in the shaping of celebrity culture as contested space. It draws upon an analysis of the post-mortem career of Elvis Presley to illustrate how our knowledge of Elvis has been formed by the various legal actions which assisted the passage of his name, image and likeness from the public to the private domains and also the various 'policing' governance strategies that have since been employed to maintain control over the use of his image.
THE BBC ARCHIVE POST-JIMMY SAVILE: IRREPARABLE DAMAGE OR RECOVERABLE GROUND
Clad in a gold-lamé tracksuit, jacket unzipped to reveal a blue T-shirt emblazoned with the broadcast dates of the BBC's long-running pop music show Top of the Pops (1964–2006), presenter Jimmy Savile returned, aged eighty, to co-host its final installment. So iconic was his relationship with the show that he was given the honor of symbolically turning off the studio lights for the final time. Behind the stage, walking past electrical rigging, the veteran broadcaster sighed and gently shook his head with sadness as he flipped the switch; the studio lights shut down in sequence and the scene went to black. Five years later, following Savile's death in 2011, this scene was revisited to symbolize another ending. Layered against the celestial yet celebratory tone of contemporary pop act Florence and the Machine's " Cosmic Love " (complete with sections of harp glissando) the sequence formed part of the concluding section of the tribute program Sir Jimmy Savile: As It Happened (2011). Part of a series of televised memorials and deftly employing 60 years' worth of BBC television archive content alongside testimonials from Savile's colleagues, peers and fans, the program worked to remind the viewer of the centrality of Savile to both the BBC and British popular culture. Broadcaster Chris Evans' voice-over reminded us that " for six decades, Sir Jimmy Savile was part of the fabric of British life " and concluded with the line, " Now, Sir Jimmy has gone, but undoubtedly his legend will live on. " Less than a year later, this line is infused with dark irony: in 2012 Jimmy Savile is exposed as having been a voracious sexual predator and is at the heart of the biggest sexual abuse scandal in British history. This chapter is concerned with what is now a cavity at the heart of the BBC archive: the space the broadcaster Jimmy Savile once occupied and the connection that the BBC once celebrated. It aims to demonstrate that, despite efforts by the BBC to eradicate Savile from its
Echo: A Music-Centered Journal, 2015
The British Prime Minister’s privileged background and unpopular austerity measures have combined to make him a hate figure for the left; his musical tastes have been rebuked by fans, and the artists themselves, as being incompatible with his right-wing political program. This paper proceeds from the possibility that David Cameron was not being cynical in professing admiration for The Smiths and considers music’s role in the embodiment of a social identity. Drawing on recent examples in the UK and the US, the paper explores politicians’ problematic relationship with popular culture, alongside the notion that when an artist’s music is appropriated, they themselves are appropriated.
Crime Media Culture: An International Journal , 2013
This study advances research on scandal through an empirical examination of one the most extraordinary UK institutional child sexual abuse (CSA) scandals in the post-war period. Sir Jimmy Savile (1926-2011) was a BBC celebrity, showbiz friend of the establishment and philanthropist. In October 2012, one year after his death, an ITV documentary alleged that Savile was also a prolific sexual predator who for decades had exploited his BBC status to abuse teenage girls. As we demonstrate, this incendiary documentary triggered a news media feeding frenzy that in less than one week destroyed Savile’s reputation and thrust the BBC – the institution that made him a star – into a multi-faceted, globally reported CSA scandal. This study has four purposes. First, we propose a model of institutional CSA scandals that can account for critical transitions between key phases in the scandal process. Second, we apply this model to analyse the transition between the ‘latent’ and ‘activated’ phases of the Savile scandal. This transition corresponded with a dramatic transformation in the inferential structuring of Savile from ‘national treasure’, who had devoted decades to working with children, to ‘prolific sexual predator’, who spent decades abusing them. Third, we demonstrate how the BBC’s denial of responsibility for Savile’s sexual offending and its subsequent institutional cover-up triggered a ‘trial by media’ which in turn initiated the next phase in the scandal’s development – ‘amplification’. Finally, we consider the significance of our analysis of the Sir Jimmy Savile scandal for understanding the activation and development of scandals more generally.
Continuum, 2018
For many years, the mistreatment of women in particular has essentially been normalized in many parts of the music industry. In recent years, however, there has been an increase in women coming forward and telling their stories, and asking that men be held accountable for wrongdoing. This interdisciplinary (sociology and philosophy) paper pursues two key feminist questions prompted by recent developments. Firstly: How has the construction of the history of popular music legitimated the continuation of this situation? 'Looking back' historically and sociologically, examples are provided of the legitimation or ignoring of violence against women (VAW) in the history of popular music to date. Secondly: How should we [archivists, historians, heritage curators and popular music educators], from now on, construct the history of popular music in a way that doesn't legitimate VAW? Turning to 'look forward', applied ethics frameworks are used to explore different aspects of this second question.
Dealing with violence and sexual assault in accounts of popular music's past
For many years, the mistreatment of women in particular has essentially been normalized in many parts of the music industry. In recent years, however, there has been an increase in women coming forward and telling their stories, and asking that men be held accountable for wrongdoing. This interdisciplinary (sociology and philosophy) paper pursues two key feminist questions prompted by recent developments. Firstly: How has the construction of the history of popular music legitimated the continuation of this situation? ‘Looking back’ historically and sociologically, examples are provided of the legitimation or ignoring of violence against women (VAW) in the history of popular music to date. Secondly: How should we [archivists, historians, heritage curators and popular music educators], from now on, construct the history of popular music in a way that doesn’t legitimate VAW? Turning to ‘look forward’, applied ethics frameworks are used to explore different aspects of this second question.