Lies, and Tears, and Breakups, Oh My!: What I Learned About Celebrity Journalism

From the moment I realized that journalism was my perfect career field, I knew I wanted to pursue the arts and entertainment world. I have been obsessed with celebrity journalism since I started watching interviews with boy bands like One Direction and Five Seconds of Summer when I was in middle school. I always dreamed of being that interviewer or reporter getting the scoop on the private lives of Hollywood. 

I feel like it is something everyone is interested in. No matter who you are or what you like there has to be some celebrity you're a fan of and would be interested in learning about their life. There has to be some sort of celebrity gossip everyone has taken part in or been invested in. 

Kylie Jenner might be dating Timothee Chalamet, Millie Bobby Brown got engaged, Tiger Woods struggled at The Masters, Drake Bell has been reported as missing and endangered, and Prince Harry will attend King Charles' coronation, but his wife will not. And this is all just from the past week. 

There is a part of this field for everyone's interests, no matter how niche. 

That's the beauty of it.  

I was excited to hear more about this kind of journalism when entering our third EOTO project of the semester, and I was not disappointed. I had never really thought of how celebrity journalism got started because you would have to think about those who were even considered the "first" celebrities. Thankfully, my questions were quickly answered through my classmates' presentation. 

They traced celebrity journalism all the way back to one of the first presidential interviews ever conducted. The sixth president of the United States, John Quincy Adams, was interviewed by journalist Anne Newport Royall in 1817. At first, he refused to meet with a woman reporter because he didn't believe that she could handle interviewing a president. 

Royall took matters into her own hands as and found out that Adams enjoyed a morning swim each day without clothes. Royall met the president once he got into the water, trapping him while she asked him her questions sitting on his clothes. 

I really enjoyed learning the origins of this way of writing and made me appreciate celebrity journalism that much more. 

The idea of celebrity journalism could even be traced back farther to London in the late 1700s. A writer by the name of James Boswell wrote many columns for the London Magazine under the pseudonym "the hypochondriac." He wrote about the town's happenings and gossip. This idea has been brought to life through the wildly popular Netflix series Bridgerton. I am not sure if I would categorize this as celebrity journalism since it was more local news, but still such an interesting concept. 

The first "celebrity magazine" started in England in 1893. The Sketch was filled with gossip and news all about some of the most well-known "celebrities" in the country: the royal family. Celebrity gossip magazines didn't reach the States until Photoplay in 1911. This was America's first taste of the "inside" lives of those in the spotlight. 

Here in 2023, there is now a world where the whereabouts of celebrities can be found at all times of the day, we can sometimes forget that celebrities are just people, who deserve peace and privacy. Although the media may idolize them and most reporting on the lives of the famous is done out of admiration, there is a line that is beginning to fade due to social media, which is something I think everyone could benefit from keeping in mind. 

Throw Objectivity Out the Window: The History of Gonzo Journalism and the Man who Created it

What is Gonzo Journalism? I had surely never heard of it before. When I heard the word Gonzo all I could think about was the little blue muppet (but I did find out that the term “gonzo journalism” predated the muppet).

Traditional journalism values objectivity. Writers and reporters that stay true to traditional journalism write based on fact and present their findings in a clear, unbiased fashion. Gonzo journalism is the complete opposite of that. Journalists who practice this form of writing use first-person accounts without any attempt to keep their personal views, observations, or experiences off the page. 

As part of the new journalism movement of the 1970s, gonzo journalism uses sarcasm, dark humor, exaggeration, and even profanity. It was a part of the counterculture movement, going against everything deemed “traditional.” Pure gonzo journalism is quite rare today, but attributes of it can still be seen in a wide range of publications like Rolling Stone and VICE. 

This type of writing even has its own symbol: the gonzo fist. A hand with two thumbs and four fingers holding a peyote button, which is a type of small cactus. The symbol was originally part of Hunter S. Thompson’s 1970 campaign for sheriff of Pitkin County.

Now, who is Hunter S. Thompson, one might ask? He is seen as the father of gonzo journalism. The term was first ever used by the editor of The Boston Globe, Bill Cardoso. He used it to describe Thompson's article of June 1970 entitled “The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved.” 

Cardoso claimed that the word gonzo comes from South Boston Irish slang for the last man standing after an all-night drinking marathon. Although it is also assumed that the term was inspired by the 1960 song “Gonzo” by a Rhythm and Blues pianist by the name of James Booker. Thompson himself claimed that the name was influenced by the song in an oral biography released in 2007. So, the origin of the name is very up in the air, and may never be known. 

Hunter S. Thompson is best known for his book which started as a piece written for Rolling Stone Magazine. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a detailed recounting of his personal trip to Las Vegas for the Mint 400 motorcycle race. It is a somewhat fictionalized account that included dark humor, drug use, hallucinations, and sarcasm that grew popular enough to be published as a hardcover book by Random House. It was later adapted into a movie starring Johnny Depp as the Thompson character. 

It is rumored that Johnny Depp grew so close to Thompson that upon his death in 2005, Depp spent $3 million to build a cannon in the shape of the gonzo fist to shoot Thompson’s ashes out of it. 

Some popular modern examples that display attributes of gonzo journalism include the VICE story “My Wedding Feast Gave All my Loved Ones Salmonella” by Katinka Oppeck and “Up All Night with Amy Winehouse” by Claire Hoffman. 

Thompson’s legacy is honored and kept alive by the online publication called GonzoToday. They provide a mission statement that reads: “GonzoToday is a collective of writers and artists dedicated to promoting self-expression and freedom of speech and provides a platform for truth and artistic creation… We condemn censorship of speech or ideas; the exploitation of the planet’s resources or inhabitants; and bigotry, discrimination, or oppression against any person, group, or worldview.”

Publications such as Rolling Stone Magazine regard Thompson as a legend and a journalism hero. In a 2010 article for the Michigan Online News, writer Jennifer Marinelli argues “Hunter S. Thompson didn’t just create a new form of journalism. He created a new way of thinking that is still important in today’s society…It is doubtful that many members of the Digital Age partake in the hard gonzo lifestyle of drugs and alcohol that Thompson symbolizes. However, it is hard to ignore the similarities between Thompson’s gonzo journalism and today’s growing popularity of citizen journalism through new media like blogs and Twitter.” 

On the other hand, any writers and publications do not even consider Thompson a journalist, but a disgrace. He is a somewhat controversial individual in the journalism field as there are so many mixed emotions that are brought about by his name and the type of journalism he created.