Communication Strategies for the Competition of the Show Business Actors in the Digital Environment

The article is devoted to the description of the specifics of competition in show business. The aim is to identify the communicative strategies, tactics and techniques used by the “stars’’ of show business to fight rivals, and analyze the features of their implementation in digital media in a crisis event. The research material includes posts by celebrities in the TOP 30 on demand in the TG-Stat service, published in the Telegram messenger after the scandalous party of blogger A. Ivleeva with the dress code “almost naked as well as publications by some show business personalities on other social networks. As a result of the study, the use of two strategies of competition between the “stars’’ of show business was discovered: offensive (attacking) and defensive. As part of the offensive strategy, the following tactics were identified: tactics of discrediting competitors, tactics of manipulating public consciousness and tactics of mythologization. The defensive strategy in show business is represented by tactics such as explaining/explaining the situation, deflecting criticism from oneself, self-presentation and apology. The analysis of empirical material showed that the offensive strategy as a tool of competition with rivals was mainly used by show business actors who were not present at the scandalous event, and the defensive strategy was used by those “stars’’ who became participants in the “naked’’ party and received public condemnation. Taking into account the fact that the spheres of politics and show business have many common features (for example, the desire to compete with rivals for leadership, the desire for entertainment communication, manipulative influence on the audience, etc.), the authors of the article hypothesize that communication strategies of competition in politics and showbusiness may coincide.