Anne Helen Petersen’s new article in Buzzfeed is a timely look at how celebrities used to be at the mercy of paparazzi…and are no more. (Well, not as much.) Now, social media allows them to manage their narratives. That includes responding to crises, as well as to invasive commentary and reporting about their personal lives. Key takeaways:
“In the past, in the midst of a scandal or a breakup, celebrities would agree to interviews to tell “their side of the story.” Now, they just post an announcement online, either on their own celebrity brand website (as Paltrow did on Goop when she “consciously uncoupled” from Chris Martin), or via screenshots using the Notes app, iMessage, or whatever weird thing was happening with Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan’s separation announcement. The Notes app, screenshotted and posted across a celebrity’s social media channels, has become the go-to method of public apology, for anything from collaborating with R. Kelly (Lady Gaga) to stranding thousands of people on an island without adequate food or shelter (Ja Rule).
The Notes app apology provides more space than a tweet, more personality than a publicist’s statement, and — just like everything else that comes out of a celebrity’s “personal” social media account — the aura of authenticity.”
Read the article here: How The 2010s Killed The Celebrity Gossip Machine
