Media And Society: Celebrity Midterm
celebrity spectacle
"Spectacles are media constructs that are out of the ordinary and habitual daily routine which become popular media events, capturing the attention of the media and the public," (Kellner 716)
Internet celebrities (anticelebrity, DIY celebrity, micro celebrity)
"The internet is a launching pad for performers who manage to build an audience online that they then use to break into the off-line entertainment world" "In this arena, the fans are extremely active in the creation of celebrity" (Gamosn 1065) The idea that the celebrity can be made and everyone has access to it
Truth vs. Knowledge
"True is not a word that is used much in research methodology" "Scientists are seeking knowledge, but it is not so much knowledge about the world as it is knowledge about what happens when you look at the world" (Gamson)
anti-celebrity
"a collective in-joke in which the most unlikely candidate becomes the most celebrated, circulated star. These celebrities tend to be ordinary people" (Gamson 1066).
micro-celebrity
"famous to a small community of fans who participate directly in producing the celebrity" (Gamson 1067)
DIY celebrity
"has pursued fame outside, despite, and sometimes in opposition to the established celebrity system" (Gamson 1066). Anyone can make themselves a star
Narratives of Fame
#1 1920s: Straight forward fame #2 1930s: Discovering the gift #3 Manufacturing Fame #4 Enjoying the Hype
History as discourse
... DON'T HAVE CORRECT DEFINITION FOR History as Discourse
Ideology, cultural contexts, demographic markets (Aufderheide)
... DON'T HAVE DEFINITION Ideology, cultural contexts, demographic markets (Aufderheide)
Negotiated meaning/meaning as a site of struggle
... DON'T HAVE DEFINITION FOR Negotiated meaning/meaning as a site of struggle
Empirical research
... DON'T HAVE PROPER DEFINITION Empirical research
Texture of experience
... DON'T HAVE PROPER DEFINTION Texture of experience
Media literacy
1) all media are constructions 2) the media constructs reality 3) audience negotiate meaning in media 4) media have commercial implications 5) media contain ideological and value messages 6) media have social and political implications 7) form and content are closely related in the media 8) each media has it's own unique aesthetic form -can't treat media as an all encompassing contact
Citizen vs. consumer
Being informed and being media literate makes you a better citizen because it makes you an advocate, not just consuming what the media throws at you (Aufderheide) 24/7 saturation. The idea of engaging in civic life (Gitlin)
Institutional vs. Interpretative Approach
Institutional: hollywood is interested in how celebrities are made, revealed how culture is made; "cultural forms (celebrities) are taken as socially determined products, and their own meaning are skipped over" (p 198) Interpretive: look at images/text for deep hidden meaning; "meaning is taken as stable but hidden, to be revealed by the analyst: cultural forms contain a societies 'deep structure' ideology messages" (p. 198)
Celebrity Text
One of the three methods, celebrity as text=textual content analysis....
Methodology
a system of methods used in a particular area of study or activity
Celebrity as public servant
celebrity more for our sake than theres, serving audience, always acting,
Celebrity as Narrative
celebrity narrative is ongoing, no closure; fictional narrative has ending
P.T. Barnum
circus; spectacles; putting things on display; attracts people (audience) through slogans; first person to develop PR ideas - any publicity is good publicity
Cross promotion
company uses multiple platforms that they own to promote a product (movie, tv show, celebrity) (ex: harry potter on entertainment weekly)
Media conglomerates
concentration of media ownership (vertical/horizontal)
Straighforward Fame
elected gods and goddess; clear purpose as to how the celebrity is famous, film performers were essential studio-owned-and-operated
Encoding/Decoding
encoding: meaning of the text comes from how it's made/interpretation (gamson) decoding: meaning comes from audience ENCODING (industry) - - - - - TEXT (work/text) - - - - - DECODING (audiences) - - - - -
Pseudo-event/human pseudo-event
event planned/constructed, not spontaneous, meant to be reconstructed and reproduced immediately, gets media attention and therefore is worth media attention, ex: red carpets
Well-knownness
famous for being famous, having a large following, ect
Manufacture of Fame
grooming celebrities to be 'perfect'; celebrity becomes product/merchandise/ect - audience is the market; have star quality onstage and off, born with talent can't be created;
Hero to Celebrity
hero v celebrity, hero is of greatness, has done something that is worthy of the media attention; celebrity is not necessarily famous for anything; Big Man v Big Name
Star System
hollywood promoting and building up someone to become a celebrity
Angelyne and Celebrity
human-puedo event, billboard, makes/causes attention for themselves therefore they deserve the attention,
Reliability
if repeated research efforts continually generate similar results
Enjoy the hype
ironic/self-deprecation, inviting audiences into narrative, celebrities trying to make fun of themselves, audience in on joke; publicly performing self
Hypodermic needle approach to meaning
media is a message that is drilled into public/audience, image will stay with you Production - - Text - - Audience message written - - medium sends the message - - message received
Content Analysis
method; analyze texts etc to gain insight, textual analysis
Experimentation
method; conduct experiments (in lab or in field) to collect data
Field Research
method; go out and conduct research in the field
Survey Research
method; survey public to gain data
Ordinariness and celebrity
move towards ordinariness, celebrities are just like us, real ex: social media celebrity: ordinary but w/ some type of quirk that makes people want to watch them
polysemy
multiple meanings
24/7 News Cycle, Media Torrent, Demobilization, fugitive public, Community of the Knowing, Media and stasis, etc. (Gitlin)
nonstop media production, people are always tuning in,
Vertical integration
one stop shop in same industry one company running two or more stages of production normally operated by separate companies
horizontal integration
owning many in similar types of industry process by which one company buys different kinds of media concentrating ownership across different types of media
Paradox of egalitarian distinction (Gamson, p. 19)
people are equal and deserve equal rights, self contrary, "unprecedented w/o being unrecognizable"
Participant Observation
people participate by being observed to collect data for a study
synergy
refers to dynamic where components of a company work together to produce benefits that would be impossible for a single, separately operated unit of the company
Validity
research is capable of generating a meaningful understanding of reality
Falsifiability
research should be designed in such a way that it can be proven false
Graphic revolution
rise of mass media; images, news papers, photography, reproduce on mass scale, (hero to celebrity pg.48)
Rules of looking/rules of thinking
rules of looking: imperial; relationships, explanations, not facts; evidence, draw conclusions from and interpret; drawing opinions from evidence that you can actually seen rules of thinking: content analysis, examining evidence to interperate
Discover the Gift
shift from ideal to a stand-out version of the "typical", celebrity as public servant (pg. 34-5), stress on ORDINARINESS
Ideology/status quo
status quo doesn't allow for opposition, media will portray world as equal, media keeps in groups/status quo (doesn't allow breaking out/being different) Body of ideas articulated by particular group. A particular distortion of reality that works in the interest of the powerful against that of the powerless.
Breakdown of the studio system
studio no longer owns the celebrity and instead the celebrity comes to market themselves
Studio System
studio owns star, studio owns everything, monopoly