‘She can’t hide her belly any longer’: Online headlines about celebrity pregnancies as small stories

IF 2.3 2区文学 Q1 COMMUNICATION

Discourse Context & Media Pub Date : 2025-05-03 DOI:10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100889

Martina Podboj

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Abstract

This study explores how online headlines about celebrity pregnancies function as small stories, i.e., a salient genre of narrative discourse often found in online spaces (Georgakopoulou, 2006, Georgakopoulou, 2022) and how online news outlets mediate these narratives. It also examines the role of clickbait in shaping the discourse around celebrity pregnancy. The study is based on the analysis of a corpus of Croatian news headlines from top-read outlets collected during 2023, and focuses on narrative positioning, stancetaking strategies, and the construction and distribution of headlines as mediated action (Scollon, 2001). The findings reveal that news outlets systematically rely on the small story format in to employ repetitive clickbait strategies that reinforce hegemonic discourses surrounding pregnant celebrities. Headlines consistently scrutinize celebrities’ appearance, age, and behavior during pregnancy, with particular emphasis on the visibility of the pregnant belly, which the celebrities are depicted as either “showing” or “hiding.” This narrative positioning functions as a salient clickbait strategy, drawing readers into familiar and often problematic portrayals of pregnancy. The study concludes that narrative strategies and clickbait are deeply intertwined in the observed headlines, highlighting how news outlets leverage their most distinctive digital affordance, i.e., clickbait, to construct and reinforce gendered media discourses.

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“她的肚子再也藏不住了”：网上头条把明星怀孕当成小故事

本研究探讨了关于名人怀孕的网络头条如何作为小故事发挥作用，即在网络空间中经常发现的一种突出的叙事话语类型（Georgakopoulou, 2006; Georgakopoulou, 2022），以及在线新闻媒体如何调解这些叙事。它还探讨了标题党在塑造围绕名人怀孕的话语中的作用。该研究基于对2023年期间收集的热门媒体克罗地亚新闻标题语料库的分析，并侧重于叙事定位、立场策略以及作为中介行为的标题的构建和分发（Scollon, 2001）。研究结果表明，新闻媒体系统地依赖于小故事的形式，采用重复的标题党策略，强化围绕怀孕名人的霸权话语。头条新闻总是对明星的外表、年龄和怀孕期间的行为进行审查，特别强调怀孕肚子的可见性，明星们要么“露出”肚子，要么“隐藏”肚子。这种叙事定位是一种明显的标题党策略，将读者吸引到熟悉的、往往有问题的怀孕描述中。该研究的结论是，在观察到的标题中，叙事策略和标题党深深交织在一起，突出了新闻媒体如何利用他们最独特的数字资源，即标题党，来构建和强化性别化的媒体话语。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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