Watching Waleed
Celebrity authenticity, Australian national identity, and the ideological work ofThe Project
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5675450 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Glenn D’cruz (Deakin University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 409-423 |
| Publication date | 2017-07-03 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Celebrity Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1939-2397 • E-ISSN: 1939-2400 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/19392397.2017.1303391 |
| OpenAlex | W2610420857 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 5 |
Waleed Aly is the most visible Australian public intellectual from a non-Anglo-Australian background. In 2016, Aly won the most coveted prize in Australian television: The Gold Logie. He was voted the most popular celebrity on Australian television primarily on the basis of his role as the co-host of the news/entertainment panel show The Project. This article interrogates a selection of Aly’s notable media appearances with a focus on his role as the co-host of The Project, a popular current affairs show on Australian television, in order to unpack the complex relationship between his celebrity status and his standing as a public intellectual, which bestows Aly with a symbolic, if not literal, mandate of authority and authenticity. More specifically, the article analyses a series of complex performative acts that align Aly’s public persona with a normative conception of Australian national identity. These acts involve two fundamental co-implicated operations. The first is a conscious self-presentation best thought of in dramaturgical terms. The second is best apprehended with reference to those discursive and institutional factors that make a place ready for us in the order of things. Finally, the article presents an account of the ideological work performed by Aly’s ‘authentic’ celebrity persona
Aesthetics · Art · Entertainment · Humanities · Ideology · Mandate · Media studies · Performative utterance · Persona · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Social Media and Politics
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |