Media Framing and Celebrity Construction

In this episode, we peel back the layers of modern fame to understand one of the most powerful—but often invisible—forces shaping celebrity culture: media framing. Whether you’re scrolling through social media, watching a red-carpet interview, or catching a headline on your news app, you are seeing more than content—you are seeing carefully constructed narratives. These narratives don’t just reflect celebrity—they create it.

Host Bob Batchelor, cultural historian, author of The Gatsby Code and Stan Lee: A Life, and professor in the Department of Communication, Media, and Culture at Coastal Carolina University, explores how media framing, agenda-setting, and symbolic storytelling combine to mold public perception.

The episode also dives into the broader media ecosystem:

• Framing Theory, drawn from the work of Erving Goffman and later expanded by scholars like Robert Entman, helps us understand how media selects, emphasizes, and downplays information to guide interpretation.

• Agenda-setting theory—another key media concept—illustrates how the press doesn’t just tell us what to think, but what to think about.

• Combined, these theories explain how celebrities are not simply revealed to us but constructed over time through repetition, tone, placement, and context.

Another key layer to this episode is what Batchelor calls the “Gatsby Effect”—the media myth-building machine that elevates individuals into symbols. Just like Jay Gatsby’s persona was crafted through selective storytelling and projection, modern celebrities are elevated (or taken down) through media frames that create mythology in real time. In both fiction and reality, public identity is a carefully controlled performance.

Why this episode matters—especially for students, emerging communicators, and those working in media, branding, or public relations:

• It provides a framework for critical media literacy—helping you decode how stories are told and why.

• It prepares you to craft more intentional communication strategies, whether you’re managing a brand, working in crisis communications, or helping shape narratives in digital platforms.

• It shows how celebrity culture is a mirror, reflecting societal values, fears, and aspirations—but also how that mirror is polished, smudged, and sometimes shattered by the media industry.

Whether you’re interested in public relations, journalism, advertising, or storytelling in any form, understanding the tools of media framing and celebrity construction is essential for your professional journey.

If this episode sparked your thinking, please consider subscribing to Theories of Celebrity Branding and sharing it with a friend or colleague. Follow the show wherever you enjoy your podcasts, and leave a review to help others find us.

For more information, visit bobbatchelor.com or follow Bob Batchelor’s work on LinkedIn.