Grief and Memory in Celebrity Culture

Former One Direction star Liam Payne was yesterday found dead following a fall from a hotel’s third floor in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires.

The 31-year-old's death was sudden and shocking to many fans, with an instant outpouring of grief over the news leading to vigils around the world.

The circumstances surrounding his death, and public behaviour leading up to yesterday’s events have also sparked questions, commentary and debate, including anger at popular celebrity gossip site TMZ posting a now-deleted picture partially showing Payne’s dead body.

But why does the global community react so strongly to the death of someone most of us don’t know? And do normal people with no connection to Payne deserve to demand private and intimate details about how and why he died? Host of LiSTNR’s The Streaming Service Justin Hill joins Helen Smith on this bonus episode of The Briefing to unpack our reaction to the news, and what it says about us. 

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