A SOCIOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTION OF GOSSIP IN MASS-MEDIA
A SOCIOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTION OF GOSSIP IN MASS-MEDIA

Summary/Abstract: What is the social significance of gossip? The answer to this question acquires multiple valences, derivedfrom the pattern of analysis that we intend to use here. Psychologically speaking, gossip is a behaviouralpattern, anthropologically, gossip may be a mentality model; philosophy of culture and history regardgossip as a source of knowledge. As an attitude and a behavioural pattern, gossip can be construed associalising, and the logical and relational scheme of human interaction has been analysed from theperspective of mathematical logic and of information sciences. The present paper aims to answer thequestion above from a sociological perspective. Starting from the social identity theory, role theory, andenlarging upon the concept of social typology, this study advances an original theoretical andmethodological model of interpretative and descriptive analysis, i.e., a conceptual construction of thesociological significance of gossip and of the human types involved in this manifestation of socialising. Inthis respect, reference will be made to all social actors involved in a manifest situation of gossip:gossipmongers, people being talked about, and consumers of entertainment news in which gossip is themost important source of information. As stated in the title, the research focus is the social environmentgenerically called mass-media. Specifically, we analyse the positive and negative effects of gossip on thepublic image of those involved in gossip. More precisely, we analyse the social significance of gossip inwhat we term gossip media/ gossip news on television (entertainment shows).

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