Constructing and Disciplining Celebrity: Journalism’s Institutional Power in Spice World

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Source Publication

Journalism History

Source ISSN

0094-7679

Original Item ID

DOI: 10.1080/00947679.2026.2641826

Abstract

This article examines the 1997 film Spice World as a cultural critique of tabloid journalism at the height of the celebrity press era. Drawing on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the study analyzes how the film represents journalism’s institutional power to construct, discipline, and commodify celebrity. We identify three dominant discourses: journalism as narrative control, journalism as moral authority, and journalism as spectacle-driven surveillance. The film’s fictional tabloid, The National Event, operates as an exaggerated yet ideologically accurate stand-in for the British press, dramatizing how journalists have claimed authorship over public narratives while shirking ethical responsibility. While often dismissed as pop fluff, Spice World offers a historically grounded critique of journalistic legitimacy, making visible the power dynamics, gendered framing, and affective consequences of press intrusion. In doing so, the film contributes to the public’s understanding of journalism’s cultural authority and institutional logic during the tabloid era of the late twentieth century.

Comments

Journalism History (2026). DOI. Online before print.

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