From people power to mass hysteria

Abstract

with revisions by Elizabeth Barry A B S T R A C T • This article looks at the phenomenon of mass mourning, its manipulation in the media, and its significance in terms of consensus-building and national politics. Did deaths such as Princess Diana's and the unprecedented outpouring of public grief that followed it signal a national 'togetherness' and communal spirit? Or was this apparent national spirit a product of the press, at the cost of a disturbing suppression of dissent? This article asks what recent, highly publicized celebrity deaths and the press reaction to them tell us about the state of our media, their preoccupations and the celebrity culture that they help to create. •