Media Narratives at work
Media conglomerates and corporations are often paid or sold stories as a way to garner public interest in something, to keep people focused on one thing while another goes unnoticed because the public's attention is focused elsewhere. We’ve seen this happen multiple times over the years, for example a scandal hits the news and new laws slip by almost unnoticed, but it’s not just used in politics. The media is always used to sell narratives about celebrities; it can and does contribute to a world where celebrities are picked apart by the vultures in the media for the public’s entertainment.
The music and film industries use the media to push narratives regarding their stars, for example one that was a crossover between film and music was when Harry Styles purportedly dated his Don’t Worry Darling costar and director. This stuntship was used to sell the narrative that 1. Harry is straight 2. Sells the movie and 3. Elevates OW in the public eye while also garnering cross promotion for the movie, however this stuntship backfired badly with fans of Harry seeing through the PR nature of the relationship and calling it out on social media.
It’s not the first time the media has sold narratives to the general public around Harry, for example when he was in One Direction and lived with Louis Tomlinson, there was a narrative pushed that they’d fallen out due to the pressure fans put on their relationship and that they were both angry with fans for shipping them together, however if you look deeper into the narrative then you can see that Harry and Louis were as close as ever, off camera, but on camera and onstage they were no longer allowed to interact or eventually even look at each other.
To this day people who believe Harry and Louis are together are accused of ruining their friendship and closeness, but ask yourself this, who benefits from this narrative? If fans are divided and hating on each other, then the label wins because no one is then looking closely at why those two weren’t allowed to interact anymore. Both boys showed genuine love and affection to each other and suddenly, after Louis was flown to LA for a meeting with Simon Cowell all interactions between them stopped and Louis' very nature changed, almost like it was trained/ conditioned out of him. Almost like conversion therapy happened to him to make him appear more straight and stop the fans of the band thinking Louis was with the ‘womanising hetero fuck boy’ that they were selling Harry as.
Further use of media narratives have taken place over the years with One Direction. It’s been reported in the media that the band broke down because of infighting, hatred, discord between the stars and arguments over girls. Yet each of the members of One Direction have spoken of their time in the band with genuine fondness and love. Harry, is the standout star of the band, but each member has had success in their own right, however the media often tries to show Harry as aloof/ above the other boys. Harry’s solo fans often take this narrative and state that Harry hates the other members, going so far as to call Louis a rat, and had bullied Liam relentlessly calling him a clout chaser and refusing to see that Harry still cares greatly for the other members of One Direction.
Since Liam Payne’s death just over two weeks ago, multiple narratives have been shared by the media and fans have been left reeling by the death of Liam and the multiple narratives that the media are pushing. Mainstream media is often (always) used by music labels, management teams and PR teams to push stories to the forefront of the public's attention and stop/ hide things that the industry doesn’t want the general public paying attention to.
One narrative they pushed was that Liam was on drugs at the time of his death, however it was reported that he’d been declared clean in the days before for his visa. The media have pushed this endlessly with Page 6 reporting that Liam had recently overdosed and had to be revived and quoted an unnamed source for this information. If an unnamed source is present in any article then this should raise questions as this is a common PR move and in this case is being pushed to discredit the fact that Liam was clean in the days before his death.
Another narrative being pushed is that Liam reconnected with Simon Cowell prior to his death, but why would Liam reconnect with someone who abused him so readily over the years and who recently claimed his biggest regret around One Direction wasn’t the abuse or horrific treatment the boys were subjected to while in the band, but was the fact that he didn’t own the name One Direction? He also claimed he spoke to Harry recently, but Harry hasn’t commented on this, so to me, this sounds like a PR campaign to save his reputation, because regardless of the cause of Liam’s death, Simon is guilty of abusing Liam and a massive factor in Liam’s alcohol addiction and mental health issues.
One more narrative that is being pushed right now, in the wake of Liam’s passing is that Liam resigned from his companies on the day he died, which I believe is being used to show that Liam was losing everything he cared about. Liam was also dropped by CAA and Universal just prior to his passing, so the media are pushing this narrative to portray the image that Liam was off the rails, when in fact the company resignations happened as a result of his passing.
More narratives being pushed is that an apparent insider is going to blow the lid on One Direction and has written a tell all book, detailing fights within the band, drug and alcohol use and drama with girlfriends and girls who slept with the boys. This book and the fact that they are using Liam’s death as a tool to try and divide the fans who’ve united in wake of his passing is horrific. The fact that anyone who worked with One Direction would have had to sign Non Disclosure Agreements seems to have skipped the media’s notice and if this person really did work with the band, then why is their NDA no longer effective and why are they writing a book about what went on? We as fans all know how fictional stories can be twisted by the media and this shows that nothing has been learned from Liam’s death.
Another distraction was when Harry won sexiest man and the person who lost came online and was like Harry won’t even know about this, as if he’d care at this time. Harry, who’s never been comfortable being a sex symbol in the first place is grieving the loss of a friend, bandmate and brother. The person went so far as to claim Harry was in Fiji, as if he’ll be off living his best life while processing the death of Liam. Contrary to popular belief, Harry loved Liam and will, as the other boys are, be struggling and be leaning on his family and the other boys for support right now. This was also used as a distraction from the news reports going around and is just ridiculous, making Harry out to be so uncaring and cold.
There is also a narrative going around that apparently the broken CCTV cameras in Liam’s hotel are now suddenly working and that there is a video of Liam fainting from the balcony, but I find this narrative as hard to believe as the others. You see, when you faint and hit an obstacle, your body would fall to the side of the obstacle, not over it, especially when that something is more than half your height. I have a bench at work that is around the same height as the balcony Liam reportedly fell over and I tried to lean against it to see if I could fall, but I couldn’t because physically it’s not possible. The fact that the hotel are now claiming he fainted after saying he was aggressive, high, unconscious etc just shows how they are trying hard to cover up the real truth of Liam’s death.
There is another narrative around the last person to see Liam alive. Roger Nores was apparently last seen at the hotel at 3pm yet fans present who have stated that Liam was calm and sober when they spoke to him at 4.45, stated that Roger was with Liam at that time and escorted him to his room. Liam stated to those fans that he’d be back after dinner, yet when he got into his room screaming and shouting was heard, before a bang was reported and then Liam passed away.
Lastly I would like to point out that online, especially on X (twitter) there are accounts popping up who are attempting to cause discord between fans and cause infighting between subsections of the boys fandoms. There are Louies’ who are calling Louis by his birth name in an attempt to discount Mark as his father, fans of Harry who are saying horrific things about Liam and Louis’ family, fans who are still trying to push the narrative that Liam was abusive and shouldn’t be mourned and fans hating on Liam’s friend Sam who wanted to release the song they recorded as a tribute to his friend. All of this causes fans to lose focus on the fact that Liam deserves justice for his death and stops people seeing the multiple inconsistencies around his death.
To my mind, all the media narratives are to distract the general public from the fact that so much about Liam’s passing doesn’t add up and that there are glaring inconsistencies in his passing and the narrative that the hotel put out from the 911 call claiming that when he’s conscious he was aggressive, to the mention of the balcony to the fact they are pushing the drug up angle and the fact that Roger Nores and Maya Hendry are connected and have conveniently gone quiet/ disappeared since Liam’s passing. This is especially suspicious since Maya’s book has a scene where her protagonist attempts to jump to his death from a balcony in Argentina and Roger is Argentinian. And coincidentally Liam was in Argentina at the time of his death.
So many things don’t add up and all of the media stories show that they are scrambling because the general public aren’t buying the story of Liam falling or fainting and the media are desperately attempting to distract everyone who’s watching these conflicting stories and wondering why a young man who had so much left to live for is gone in the most suspicious of circumstances.
What can we do? As fans of Liam’s and the other members of One Direction or even as fans of music in general, we need to keep pushing for answers and keep fighting to stop the music industry silencing victims of assault. We need to work together to make changes and work with other fandoms because if all music fans unite then the labels lose and they’d need to change their practices. We keep fighting to end exploitation and abuse in the industry and hold the media to account for the lies and bullshit they spread. We are not sheep and we are not buying the narratives they are pushing.
Stronger together and weaker divided. Keep fighting, stay strong and remember Liam as the kind and loving person he actually was, not what the media and nefarious characters have painted him as.
Thanks for reading
BTC
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