Celebrity politcs, media and gender

This thesis carries out a comparative case study on gender framing within a celebrity politics framework which for the purpose of this paper is defined as a communication pattern that involves an established politician interacting with tropes of popular culture. The 2013 filibusters by Texas state Senator Wendy Davis and US Senator Rand Paul created an attractive context for investigating how male and female politicians are framed within celebrity politics mode: both politicians generated an immense online buzz during their 13 hour filibustering speeches, especially on Twitter. A similar political background created by legislative tool of filibustering, close time period, and comparable social media attention, produce unique circumstances that allow for performing a study on differences in covering female and male politicians by mainstream media. Celebrity politics heavily relies on media technologies that take part in creating a celebrity persona. Thus, since the filibusters generated a great participation from online public, this thesis also investigates how user generated content is incorporated within the news stories drawing on the theories of “hybrid” and “bricoleur” media.