Mass+Production+of+Celebrity

=Mass Production of Celebrity=

"Rhona L Beremstein indicates that television also has the reputation of being a medium of immediacy: an apparatus that, more than film, offers its viewers live access to the world around them and hence it was assumed, to reality" (350)

REALLY? (//Pseudoevents:// an event or activity that exists for the sole purpose of the media publicity and serves little to no other function in real life. Without the media, nothing meaningful actually occurs at the event, so pseudo-events are considered “real” only after they are viewed through news, advertisement, television or other types of media)

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"There is a recognition of the gap between the unattainable norm and everyday reality that is reproduced in the recognition of the difference between the televisual representation and the real. This recognition gives the viewer the right (and ability) to deny that difference, and to treat the representation as though it were the real in order to increase textual pleasure. this ability to move into and out of the text, simultaneously to affirm and deny its textuality, is pleasurable because it is a movement under the control of the view" (John Fiske, //Popular Texts//, 119)

__The 'Demotic' Turn:__ "a means of referring to the increasing visibility of the 'ordinary person' as they turn themselves into media content through celebrity culture, reality TV, DIY websites, talk radio, etc... a democratizing process used to examine the role that the access to mass-mediated fame plays within the construction of cultural identities" (153) = REALITY TELEVISION= "Reality TV... is an open invitation to its participants to merge their //personal// everyday reality with that created publicly by television" (160)
 * As a society, we have a desire to attain closeness and proximity with celebrity culture

"Although the 'reality' of reality TV is of course a construction, what has become significant is the way these formats have exploited the reality effect of television's 'liveness'; that is, the foregrounded liveness enhances the illusions that what is being watched is real or genuine, thus challenging the competing suspicion that it is only being staged and produced for the camera" (155) media type="youtube" key="r2O7sDK7GuM" height="344" width="425"

"In the future, everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes" - Andy Warhol (1964)

__Celetoids:__ "the accessories of cultures organized around mass communications and staged authenticity". Ex: lottery winners, one-hit-wonders, stalkers, streakers, Reality TV stars, 'arm candy' for real celebrities, etc (156)

Finding 15 Minutes of Fame in 2009

"Television's production of celebrity can truly be regarded as a manufacturing process into which the product's planned obsolescence is incorporated... the media industries still remain in control of the symbolic economy, and that they still attempt to operate this economy in the service of their own interests" (155,157)

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 * Example of celetoid obsolescence gone bad: William Hung vs. Larry Platt

media type="youtube" key="lQOY0FQrDmQ" height="270" width="441" There are positive trends that are shown when looking at the 'demotic' turn toward increases in Celetoids: it "opened up media access to women, to people of colour, and to a wider array of class positions; that the increased volume of media content now available could result in increased powers of self-determination becoming available to media consumers; and that there is every reason why the posittive by-products of this increased volume and diversity might excite optimism about its democratic potential" (157)
 * Example of perceived celetoid obsolescence, turned positive - Leona Lewis and Susan Boyle, Justin Bieber[[image:http://991.com/newGallery/Leona-Lewis-Spirit-418534.jpg width="235" height="211"]] media type="youtube" key="RxPZh4AnWyk" width="425" height="350"

But has is gone too far...

"current research is reporting that fame is now being talked about as a realistic career option by young people even though they have yet to decide in what area of public performance they might pursue their fame" (162)

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