1. INTRODUCTION
2.2 Celebrities and media
國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
13
technologies to actively engage with old media content and see the Internet as a vehicle for collective problem-solving, public deliberation, and grassroots creativity (p 169). Thus, the interplay and tension between the top-down corporate-driven process and the bottom-up consumer-driven process have resulted in many changes in the convergence culture.
Sometimes these two forces are complimentary, but sometimes they are at war with each other. For example, prohibitionism and collaborationism are two particular responses accorded by Jenkins to describe the interaction between the two forces. The former describes media outlets which adopt a scorched-earth policy toward their consumers, trying to control and criminalize many forms of fan participation that used to fall below their radar.
The latter refers to those which are experimenting with new approaches, and see fans as crucial collaborators in the production of content and as grassroots intermediaries helping to promote the franchise (p 134). He argued that, eventually, the prohibitionist position will be ineffective and media companies will have to respect the growing public consensus of what constitutes the fair use of media content, and they will have to allow the public to participate meaningfully in their own culture.
Compared to the past, when people were powerless to make any difference to mass media text, the voices of consumers are much more easily heard in the convergence culture.
The participation and positive engagement of audiences may change the way they receive and interact with the media.
2.2 Celebrities and media
The term “celebrity” and its definition will be introduced in the following paragraphs, after which Dyer’s work, “stars”, will be discussed in order to better understand the context of celebrities’ studies. Finally, outline celebrities’ interesting relationship with the mass media will be outlined.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
14
2.2.1 Definitions and characteristics of celebrities
According to the Cambridge on-line Dictionary, the word celebrity is defined as
“someone who is famous, especially in the entertainment business,” and as “the state of being famous.” It originates from the Latin word, ‘celebrem’, which suggests “fame” and
“being thronged”. The Latin root indicates a relationship in which a person is marked out as possessing singularity and a social structure where the characteristics of fame are fleeting (Rojek, 2001). The most widely-quoted definition of celebrity was given by cultural historian Daniel Boorstin (1961), who said:
“The celebrity is a person who is known for his well-knowness…He is neither good nor bad, great nor pretty. He is the human pseudo-event…The hero was distinguished by his achievement; the celebrity by his image or trademark. The hero created himself; the celebrity is created by the media. The hero was a big man;
the celebrity is a big name.” (Boorstin 47, 57, 61)
Although just being “known” seems like an easy standard for distinction, in the contemporary celebrity landscape, a celebrity cannot be distinguished merely because he or she is “known”. According to Rojek (2001), the definition of celebrity can be referred to as a more fleeting concept of fame. Geraghty (2000) suggested that ‘meaningful’ distinctions and hierarchies to address the state of ‘being famous’ have diminished, and fame can also be referred to as the private life of a person, instead of his or her performing presence (p 187, cited from Holmes 2005).
Neal Gabler (2001) made a similar statement, arguing that “popularity is only the by-product of celebrity, not its source” (p 5). He made an interesting comparison as follows:
“Queen Elizabeth is certainly famous, but one doubts whether most Americans
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
15
would call her a celebrity the way Princess Di was. George Bush, Sr. is famous, but he is not a celebrity. His successor Bill Clinton is. Vice President Dick Cheney is famous, but he is no celebrity. There are no paparazzi elbowing one another aside to snap Cheney’s picture, no swooning Cheney fans crying out,
“Dick, Dick,” most of all no Cheney stories filling the tabloids.” (p.4, 2001)
According to Gabler, a celebrity is “…a person who, by the very process of living, provides entertainment for us—a definition that embraces most conventional entertainers…whose lives fill the gossip columns and magazines.” Thus, it is not only limited to traditional entertainers; instead, those who can provide people and media with
“narratives that have entertainment value”, can be considered to be celebrities.
The academic field contains various interpretations of the definition and concept of celebrity status. Bonner suggested that celebrity status can function to indicate how the media contexts of fame are now less specific, with individual celebrities rarely restricted to a single media form (2005:65). According to Rojek, “celebrity = impact on public consciousness” (2001:10), whereas Geraghty perceived celebrity status to be a broader redefinition of the public/private boundary, and the primary consideration is increasingly a person’s “private” life or lifestyle rather than their professional role (2000). Turner made the following comment:
We can map the precise moment a public figure becomes a celebrity. It occurs at the point at which media interest in their activities is transferred from reporting on their public role…to investigating the detail of their private lives. (2004: 8, cited from Holmes and Redmond, 2006)
Rein, Kotler and Stoller (1987:15) defined two important characteristics of celebrities:
large-scale public attention, which is the publicity celebrities experience and the positive
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
16
emotional responses elicited from the public. However, Gabler (2001) suggested that, apart from publicity and emotional responses, “foundation narrative” is also a suitable prerequisite of celebrities, and as long as a figure has an interesting “narrative” to be written about, he or she already has the basic premise to be considered as being a celebrity.
2.2.2 Stars studied by Richard Dyer
Richard Dyer’s work, Stars, written in 1979, is considered to be the authoritative discourse in the study of celebrity. Dyer famously argued the analyses of stars in the realm of representation and ideology, suggesting that stars could be understood as being “signs”, read as “texts” and “images”, and investigated the use of semiotics (Barker, 2003: 6, cited from Holmes & Redmond, 2006). Their images can be seen as intertextual constructions because they are produced via the sharing and linking of meanings between different sources of star texts. Thus, when the star-as-a person is substituted by the star-as-image, the significance of particular stars lies in how they are constructed through the tangible textual materials where the images of stars are circulated.
According to Dyer (1998), the search for the “authentic” person behind that manufactured mask of fame is the important factor of fandom and the construction of stars and celebrities. He argued that celebrities are produced by the assertion that their private selves are behind the public image, but these assertions “take place in one of the aspects of modern life that is most associated with the invasion and destruction of the inner self[…]
namely the mass media” (1987:89). For example, people buy gossip magazines and tabloids to find out about the “private lives” of celebrities, even if they are reflected in a negative light, involving such elements as lies, violence, drunkenness, and so on. Although audiences cannot make media images mean anything they want to, they can still choose from within to find the image that “works for them”(Dyer 1986, p 5).
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
17
This complexity is the basis of the fan/star/celebrity relationship (Holmes, Redmond, 2006), and it offers fans “the ultimate sign of availability—the unlicensed display of their naked bodies” (Turner, 2004:125). According to Holmes (2004), “the famous” are increasingly brought into view through what is presented or reported and perceived to be an
‘unmediated’ close-up of their actual lived experience. Therefore, when celebrities are operating a social media platform, they seem to be providing fans and the public with another channel to know who they “really are”, whether it presents their lives, behavior, interior selves, or is just a strategy for greater celebrification. This direct contact has enhanced the intimacy between the celebrity and the fan.
Dyer (1979) indicated that a star image can only represent an identity produced and circulated via channels of mass communication, and can never be a straightforward portrayal of the real personality of a star. Yet, this does not mean that the star image is untrue or inauthentic; instead, star images are the only access by which the public knows a star, and the truth or reality of any star is in the image [emphasis added].
2.2.3 Celebrities and mass media
In the early stage, celebrities were limited to figures such as political and religious elites; yet, with the growth of art and technology, by the middle of the 19th century, celebrity was considered as a “mass – and more democratic – phenomenon” (emphasis added, Gamson, 2001). The Hollywood studio system made “star quality” and “talent”, rather than
“greatness”, the defining quality of celebrities (Gamson, 2001: 264). The explosion of media outlets in the second half of the twentieth century turned fame into a manufactured discourse, suggesting that celebrities are produced and made, not “born” (Holmes, 2006).
This manufactured nature of stars and celebrities is one of the over-riding discourses that contemporary fame is circulated and interpreted (Gamson, 1994).
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
18
The “body” of a star or celebrity is key to the search for the “truth" behind those stars and celebrities (Holmes and Redmond, 2006), and the suffering and damage caused by fame is an increasingly prevalent trend in the production and consumption of stars, celebrities, and personalities (Redmond, 2006). In an environment where stars and celebrities are manufactured, people tend to seek their unmediated, natural, even flawed images because that makes them feel more intimate and close. These naked, stripped images not only draw people closer to the damaged star or celebrity, but also render the potential of the appearance of resistant behavior. For example, when a celebrity’s image is damaged, he or she often shapes an immediate connection to his or her fans, who often consider themselves as being similarly damaged, and thus construct resistant, symbiotic “relationships”, which counter the dominant ideology (ibid, p 40).
Nowadays, celebrities are no longer confined within specific media. Instead, their images are demonstrated through different channels and consumed by folk in general (Holmes, 2005). In the past, these channels referred to traditional media such as newspapers, television, magazines, etc; however, today, the Internet and its related applications have become a crucial platform for celebrities to be represented, since it eliminates the barriers of time and space and enables fans to directly negotiate with their favorite celebrities or characters. Holmes and Redmond (2006) said:
New and old media technologies have enabled stars and celebrities to be endlessly circulated, replayed, downloaded and copied. Their images, qualities and cultural values are found almost everywhere, invading many areas of social life…the digital and the virtual media technologies have also opened up the number of spaces where the star or desire can be found out, re-written, and seen in the flesh as they really are. (p.4)
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
19
Thus, as more new media outlets are emerging, traditional media can no longer maintain its indefinite power over the interpretation of celebrities. Celebrities themselves can also actively engage in the shaping of their images.