What's the sound of a name dropping?

A reporter hanging out with celebrities is in a position to investigate how it is that people feel aroused, elevated, humbled or annoyed by celebrity presence or by having celebrity names dropped at them. What forces are at play? They are strong forces, for sure, which are used daily to get all sorts of people hooked on journalistic stories.

In an article (in Danish) on star quality in reporters I have argued that a given reporter who himself admits to feeling hooked or somehow affected by the stardom of people he is interviewing, has gained some common ground with his readers by acknowledging an element of more or less irrational fascination. But what is more, he has also reached a level of awareness where he is able to play with namedropping as an element of style and be critical of the dynamics that it may cause in the reading process.

My article is not an academic piece, and one reader, I've been told, has already concluded that it sounds like something out of a ladies' magazine. So I'm ready for all sorts of comments on my specific readings (of four first person accounts of reporting in the company of celebrities) or on the subject in general.

(The idea of studying star quality in reporters was inspired by an article by Nadja Pass in Reflexioner (2004) on the various dimensions of character which might add up to media stardom.)