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May 2023 Vol. 60 No. 9

This book, supported by relevant fieldwork and interviews, is a thoughtful discussion of the role of entertainment journalism in circulating, inspiring, expanding, and sometimes simplifying and sensationalizing political discourses. Penney (Montclair State Univ.) observes, “As shown by the example of controversy cycles over a stray awards show nomination or snub, a single morsel of pop culture news can now serve as a springboard for myriad reports and commentaries that explore a host of political issues from varying perspectives” (p. 11). Penney emphasizes that the intersection of entertainment journalism and politics is not new—e.g., entertainment journalists were often at the forefront of covering the AIDS crisis and LGBTQ+ experiences in the 1980s and 1990s—and illustrates how this intersection scaled up and out in the era of social media, e.g., #GamerGate, #MeToo, and #OscarsSoWhite. Penney also describes how entertainment journalists—when their jobs have not been eliminated altogether by media companies—feel pressure to create stories that will serve as “clickbait” despite the uncertainty of how, when, and to what ends their stories will be read, watched, heard, and shared. Penney's insightful dissection of entertainment, politics, and journalism is deeply illuminating.

--K. Sorensen, Bentley University

Summing Up: Recommended. Undergraduates through faculty, practitioners, general readers.