Politicians, Celebrities and Social Media

Nathan Manning and Ruth Penfold-Mounce have had a journal article published in Journal of Youth Studies. The article has been written over the last 2 years and is finally out! 

Ruth Penfold-Mounce

Nathan Manning

See the abstract below:

With electoral politics no longer organised by social class, politicians increasingly seek to relate to a broad spectrum of citizens and part of their relatability is conjured through more casual, informal performances aimed at cultivating authenticity. The various platforms of social media promote forms of authentic communication by blurring the public/private divide, creating ‘spontaneous’ and instant access to ‘real life’. This article seeks to investigate the informalization thesis (Wouters, 2007) by applying it to data from young people aged 16-21 years in Australia, the UK and the USA asked about the way politicians and celebrities use social media. Findings reveal respondents’ desire for more authentic and accessible politicians, but this was in direct tension with traditional views and expectations of politicians needing to be professional, informed and worthy of respect. Informalization amongst politicians is evident and welcomed by young citizens but persistent traditional views means it also threatens their credibility.

The article draws on original data gathered by Brian D. Loader, Ariadne Vromen and Michael Xenos as part of The Civic Network Project (Grant 201300029) funded by the Spencer Foundation.

Media Impact and the Hairy Bikers

Ruth Penfold-Mounce

Academics are increasingly called to have 'impact' and to be public intellectuals outside of the ivory towers of universities. This often calls for working outside of the comfort zone of many academic researchers - talking to and appearing in the media. Ruth Penfold-Mounce, Lecturer in Criminology reflects on her experience of filming with the BBC:


'Last year in March I received an email from the BBC who wanted to ask some questions about the book I'd written Celebrity Culture and Crime in which I had done a case study of the East End of London 1960s gangster twins, the Krays. Phone conversations followed emails and before I knew it I had been asked to be an 'expert' on the Krays and to walk the Hairy Bikers through a murder scene in The Blind Beggar pub in London. It was an offer I couldn't refuse despite being horribly nervous at the thought of appearing on national television.

The Hairy Bikers

On Friday 29th April 2016 the episode for which I had filmed was shown. Admittedly I was nervous as to how I would come across but after watching it I feel really proud to have done it. Getting out of my comfort zone and appearing on television was a fabulous opportunity to share my passion for celebrity and criminality. I am also glad that I thought in advance about how to make this opportunity into something more than just dissemination of knowledge. I made sure that I got to have a say on the voice over content and I have kept the emails as evidence of my 'impact'.

For fellow academics thinking about how to make the most of media opportunities and to turn it in to impact I would encourage you to consider keeping evidence of how you contributed. Are their suggestions you made that led to a change in emphasis or direction of the debate? If there were phone conversations make sure you send a follow up email confirming what you have suggested - keep the paper trail. We are now (somewhat sadly) in a time where it is vital to think tactically in order to maximize your impact.'

Encountering Corpses in Manchester

Ruth Penfold-Mounce is speaking at the new public event -  Encountering Corpses II - on Saturday 19th March 2016.

Held in the Manchester Crematorium Old Chapel the day will include tours of the Crematorium facility, a visit to the Greater Manchester Police social centre for lunch and a display on policy pathology in the area.

Ruth will be part of a panel on (Sub)Cultural Encounters - Mountaineer corpses, celebrity bodies and preserved tattoed skins

Follow the link for more details and to book your ticket:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/encountering-corpses-ii-tickets-19842731143

Event on Celebrity Culture and Young People

Paul Wakeling (Dept of Education) who has worked and published with the Sociology Departments old colleague Mike Savage on the issue of social class is a member of the Centre for Research on Education and Social Justice. The Centre is running an exciting seminar on young people and celebrity.


Held on wednesday 13th January 2016 at 2.30 in D/L/116 Kim Allen from Sociology and Social Policy Department at the University of Leeds will deliver a talk on: Celebrity culture and young people's imagined futures: Narratives of aspiration in austere neoliberal Britain.

Kim will explore the stories that young people tell about their aspirations and imagined futures within a context of austerity as growing poverty levels, unemployment and welfare retrenchment are disproportionately affecting young people’s lives. Specifically, it will examine how discourses of individualism, self-responsibility, hard work and enterprise feature in young people’s everyday talk about ‘success’ and ‘failure’. The paper will highlight the pervasiveness of neoliberal discourses of meritocracy within young people’s accounts, locating this as a ‘structure of feeling’ (Littler 2014) that circulates across political discourse and celebrity culture. However, it will complicate claims that the centrality of these discourses within young people’s account reflects a simple adoption of neoliberal ideology in which they are ‘blind to their circumstances’ (France and Haddon 2014). Attending to the powerfully emotional nature of discourses of self-reliance and ‘striving’ in the young people’s narratives, it will consider how these are entangled with individual and family biographies and entwined with practices of ‘resistance’ as young people seek to reconcile discourses of meritocracy with their lived experiences. Finally Kim will also interrogate the possibilities for young people to refuse to tell themselves according to these discourses, and consider silence, doubt and ‘not knowing’ as strategies of resistance. In doing so, the paper seeks to unpick the contradictions, complexities, ambivalences and ambiguities within neoliberalism as it works within and through the messiness of everyday practices.

Kim has been involved in the exciting CelebYouth project funded by the ESRC into young people and celebrity.

Celebrity Death: A Good Career Move?

Ruth Penfold-Mounce has published a piece in The Conversation over the Halloween Weekend. Drawing on her interest in celebrity and death she suggests that a celebrity career is not necessarily over when they die. For some celebrities being dead is the best career move they have made! Not just for Halloween reflects on Michael Jackson and how Robin Williams has successfully controlled and prevented an 'afterlife' for himself for decades to come the article addresses the sheer scale of celebrities careers in death.

Researching Celebrity and the Frivolous

Recently Ruth Penfold-Mounce published a short forum piece in Celebrity Studies. 

This piece Conducting frivolous research in neoliberal universitites: what is the value of glossy topics? sought to extend the argument from an early forum article written with Dave Beer back in 2010 on Researching Glossy Topics. 

It would seem that research the frivolous does have value despite neoliberal tendencies of Higher Education in times of austerity.

The Krays, the BBC's Hairy Bikers and Me

Recently I (Ruth Penfold-Mounce) had the opportunity of filming with the BBC's Hairy Bikers in the East End of London as an 'expert' on the Krays. The Hairy Bikers are making a 15 part series on The Pubs That Built Britain and tracking the history and stories surrounding pubs and pub culture. As part of this there is going to be an episode focusing on the East End which will feature The Blind Beggar Pub where Ronnie Kray shot and murdered George Cornell.

So back in March I found myself at 9.30am in a pub leaning on the bar armed with pints of beer for Dave Myers and Si King watching them having to repeatedly film trying to open the door to pub but messing up. Once they had successfully made it into the building we talked about my research relating to the Kray Twins and how they were untrained but effective spin doctors which combined with their distinctive Twinness has made them legendary.

So what did I take away from this experience? I can confirm that the Bikers are both as affable as they appear on tv and their hair is truly spectacular - television does not do them justice! I also learnt that walking, talking and gesturing whilst being filmed is harder than it looks and a skill I lack. I suspect I will look pretty stiff on screen as it felt so alien having cameras pointed at me and being told to act natural. However it was fun and I'm staying in touch with the producers and director and I hope to film for the BBC again.