April 4-6, 2024 • Hyatt Regency • Lexington, KY
Innovations in Health Communication
Innovations in Health Communication
Abstract: Disney Princess, Depression, Drugs, and Death: Comparing News Coverage of Celebrity Coco Lee’s Death
When news outlets cover a celebrity death, the narratives that unfold in the media can shape public thoughts, feelings, and even actions (Beck et al., 2015). News coverage of a celebrity death by overdose, in particular, could prompt people to engage in difficult conversations in their own lives about struggles with drugs or addiction. There are many attempts to overcome the stigma surrounding death including designating September as the official Suicide Prevention Month, and August 31 as the International Overdose Awareness Day (Centers for Disease Prevention Control, 2023; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2023). These unique end-of-life conversations matter because not only is death taboo, but suicide is particularly stigmatized, challenging moral and philosophical beliefs, and even extending into notions of copycat attempts (Jeon, et al., 2012). Coverage and effects may be further complicated by cultural differences and stereotypes in the context of international coverage of celebrity suicides, yet research on this aspect remains scant.
Coco Lee was the voice of the Disney Princess Mulan in the Mandarin version of the film, a pop singer-songwriter and is well known as the singer of the Oscar nominated song from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (McCarthy, 2023). An international celebrity, she was praised for her integration of Asian culture with American music. Nevertheless, news reports revealed her struggles with depression, or, as family members described it, "a demon inside.”
Our content analysis is theoretically grounded in the opportunity model for presence during the end-of-life (EOL) process (OMP) (Tenzek & Depner, 2017). The model grew out of the good death literature (see Steinhauser et al., 2000) and argues that the higher engagement one has throughout the EOL process, the better death and subsequent grieving process will be. While the model has been applied in social media, clinical, and interpersonal contexts of EOL (Lattimer et al., 2022; Scheinfeld et al., 2023; Tenzek et al., 2022; Tenzek et al., 2023), it was yet to be used for understanding news stories as part of the sociocultural context that shapes our realities and influences how we live and die.
We focus on engagement through initial reports to narratives of grief and bereavement, considering the how coverage continues to permeate our sociocultural realities, especially given the international celebrity status. We perform a theory-driven qualitative analysis of 500 news articles collected from Factiva using the search term “Coco Lee” from July-November 2023. We did not filter stories based on region to first consider potential differences in news coverage from international versus US perspectives. Secondly, we extend the time frame beyond breaking news of the celebrity death to ask how the celebrity death narrative continues to influence news coverage four months after death. Since fans may experience celebrity deaths through a parasocial lens (Beck et al., 2015; Eyal & Cohen, 2010), we expect such media coverage to be meaningful for many. Findings will be shared along with discussion of the theoretical and practical implications for EOL and celebrity death narratives in the news media.
Coco Lee was the voice of the Disney Princess Mulan in the Mandarin version of the film, a pop singer-songwriter and is well known as the singer of the Oscar nominated song from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (McCarthy, 2023). An international celebrity, she was praised for her integration of Asian culture with American music. Nevertheless, news reports revealed her struggles with depression, or, as family members described it, "a demon inside.”
Our content analysis is theoretically grounded in the opportunity model for presence during the end-of-life (EOL) process (OMP) (Tenzek & Depner, 2017). The model grew out of the good death literature (see Steinhauser et al., 2000) and argues that the higher engagement one has throughout the EOL process, the better death and subsequent grieving process will be. While the model has been applied in social media, clinical, and interpersonal contexts of EOL (Lattimer et al., 2022; Scheinfeld et al., 2023; Tenzek et al., 2022; Tenzek et al., 2023), it was yet to be used for understanding news stories as part of the sociocultural context that shapes our realities and influences how we live and die.
We focus on engagement through initial reports to narratives of grief and bereavement, considering the how coverage continues to permeate our sociocultural realities, especially given the international celebrity status. We perform a theory-driven qualitative analysis of 500 news articles collected from Factiva using the search term “Coco Lee” from July-November 2023. We did not filter stories based on region to first consider potential differences in news coverage from international versus US perspectives. Secondly, we extend the time frame beyond breaking news of the celebrity death to ask how the celebrity death narrative continues to influence news coverage four months after death. Since fans may experience celebrity deaths through a parasocial lens (Beck et al., 2015; Eyal & Cohen, 2010), we expect such media coverage to be meaningful for many. Findings will be shared along with discussion of the theoretical and practical implications for EOL and celebrity death narratives in the news media.