Vehicle Strand Celebrity Gossip

1
Vehicle StrandCelebrity Gossip
2
Celebrity Gossip? BS celebrity, stardom
marketing rise of the movie star, stars
and product endorsement, celebrity news ? the
pleasures of celebrity gossip ? Key terms
extended family, melodrama
3
Celebrity Gossip? Andy Warhol In the
future, everybody will be world famous for 15
minutes.? today more celebrities, more
magazines, more gossip? why?
4
Who are the Celebrities?? stars film and
TV actors? musicians and sports? royalty,
politicians, business? reality TV? It girls
and boys? Lifestyle experts
5
A Star-Celebrity Continuum?

• Stardom term employed in film studies to
  understand the functions and representations of
  film stars within film texts.
• Primary and secondary texts.
• Celebrity more general term
• Famous for being famous? More common, less
  valuable
• The democratisation of fame (Sue Collins,
  2008)?

6

• a star is a performer in a particular medium
  whose figure enters into subsidiary forms of
  circulation and then feeds back into future
  performances (John Ellis, Visible Fictions, 91).
• Strong distinction between primary and
  secondary texts (John Fiske)

7
A Star-Celebrity Continuum?

• Stardom term employed in film studies to
  understand the functions and representations of
  film stars within film texts.
• Primary and secondary texts.
• Celebrity more general term
• Famous for being famous (Daniel Boorstin)?
• More common, less valuable
• The democratisation of fame (Sue Collins,
  2008)?

8
(No Transcript)
9
Celebrity Gossip? why do people find this so
interesting?? Joke Hermes has an answer
10
Hermes Theory? Joke Hermes (1999) ? 2 kinds
of pleasure from celeb. gossip (1) extended
family (2) melodrama
11
1. Extended Family? celebrities are brought
down to earth? you get to know them? become
part of your life/family ? they embody ordinary
life? relationship problems, (potential)
parenthood, frustrations, ambitions ? readers
relate to the celebrities ? pleasure get to
know celebrities
12
(No Transcript)
13

• E.g. Jennifer Aniston? (Poor) Jen ordinary
  person going through break-up/divorce
• article opens Wed all been hoping theyd get
  back together (establishes common identity, a
  community of care).
• on Brad Were friends, thats what weve
  always been first and foremost (combined with
  image we know better, but)
• on herself I am a worrier and Im not good at
  hearing positive thingsLike any person, I have
  insecurities and things I hate about myself
  (Distances herself from the construction of her
  image exposes the real of vulnerability)

14
2. Melodrama? celebrities are elevated into
stereotypes/larger than life characters ?
melodrama over-the-top, sensational, clichéd,
unrealistic ? emotional, sentimental,
overacting, heroes and villains, good and evil
? e.g. Footballers Wives e.g. Melrose Place
e.g. Days of our Lives
15
Melodrama Sensation? pleasure celebrities
doing outrageous things ? we enjoy the drama,
misery, sensationalism, sentimentalism ? life
is magnified? celebrities play stereotypical
roles (heroes and villains)
16
Melodrama Morality? pleasure passing
judgement ? we enjoy the moral tone of stories ?
pleased if hero succeeds? pleased if villain
punished? makes you feel good about own life?
all part of the melodrama
17
(No Transcript)
18
E.g. Desperate Housewives? article like an
episode of a soap? actors larger than life ?
When Cross saw Hatcher was beside her in an
eye-popping, cherry-red bathing suite, she
exploded, grabbed her robe and walked off the
set. ? we love the fact they argue ? justice
Nicollette Sheridans cellulite
19
(No Transcript)
20
(No Transcript)
21
Schadenfreude

• largely unanticipated delight in the suffering of
  another which is cognized as trivial and/or
  appropriate Theodor Adorno
• Bears on the way we understand and deal with the
  problem of privilege.
• Raises issues of authenticity/inauthenticity,deser
  ving/undeserving in relation to fame
• Easier to indulge in in an age of dispensable
  celebrity (Sue Collins).

22

• a new level of celebrity stratification
  produces novelty that is easily and cheaply
  produced, while circulation, the key to creating
  scarcity as a measure of value, intrinsically
  limits access to higher values of celebrity
  because ordinary people in reality television,
  ironically, are not real actors with
  accumulated intertextual capital (Sue Collins,
  Making the Most out of 15 Minutes, p.95.
• Raises the question of hierarchy (stars/celebs),
  hence of value, hence of ideology.

23
Summary? Hermes two kinds of pleasure from
celebrity gossip (1) extended family
celebrities brought down to earth
pleasure get to know them (2) melodrama
celebrities become larger than life
pleasures drama and
passing judgement
24
(No Transcript)
25
Environment StrandClassroom or Cave?
26
Environment StrandClassroom or Cave??
McLuhan (a 60s celebrity)? education
entertainment? Classroom without Walls (1960) ?
there is no fundamental difference
27
Audio-Visual Aids? todays audio-visual aids
in class TV, DVD, video, PPT, etc ?
implication book is primary? others are all
just aids ? this not always the case...
28
Books? from acoustic to visual space? prior
to the book, instruction was oral? people
learned by listening, watching and doing ?
book a new visual aid to oral instruction?
(remember Socrates worries) ? book is primary
aid in the classroom? everyone has same book
(e.g. BS)? learning is now primarily from books
29
Today? most learning done outside
classroom? TV, magazines, the press, film,
radio, internet, etc, i.e. the media ?
schools and books now less important? the
classroom walls have cracked
30
Entertainment or Education?? many teachers
denounce new media? the evils of TV, games,
internet, etc? mere entertainment ? new media
threaten education? students are
ungrammatical, poor attention, more interested
in Im A Celebrity ? McLuhan students know
better? we must remember two points
31
1. Classics? all classics were first light
entertainment ? e.g. Shakespeares Henry V? for
everyone in Shakespeares day? 16th century
Eastenders or Big Brother? now considered great
classics ? which will be the TV classics of the
future?
32
2. New Media Forms? new media arent merely
mechanical gimmicks for creating worlds of
illusion? not just entertainment ? they are new
and unique means of communication and
expression ? McLuhans interest how media
work and what they do to us ? two effects are
interesting here
33
(i) Increasingly Acoustic? new media
increasingly acoustic? use of language evolves?
more spontaneous and free? new media push
written English toward the spoken form e.g.
email e.g. instant messaging e.g. txting
e.g. forums ? these written forms are more like
spoken language
34

• (ii) Increasingly Expressive? new media
  increasingly expressive? emphasis on facial
  expression and bodily gesture (compared to
  books)
• e.g. Big Brother argument close-ups
• e.g. ) P o ) SHOUTING

35
The Evils of New Media?? new media thus make
communication less formal ? traditional
teachers this is terrible? students write
essays like txts or email (Vikki Pollard
essays) ? McLuhan mass media do change verbal
culture? we must try to understand the changes
36
McLuhans Conclusions (1)? new media are
important for education for 2 reasons 1.
Whatever pleases teaches more
effectively ? to teach new theories, start from
what people enjoy e.g. post-feminism gt Sex
and the City e.g. ideology gt The Matrix
37
McLuhans Conclusions (2)2. Education should
also be about understanding ordinary social
experience ? social experience today is
mediated? most people today dont analyse a
magazine, e.g. Heat analyse a film, e.g. The
Matrix ? it is important to consider these media
38
Conclusion? no fundamental distinction
between entertainment and education ? people
are learning all the time? we must seek to
become aware of what were learning Any
Questions?
39
Classroom or Cave?(1) New Media (2)
Classroom Tuition (3) Understanding Media (4)
Plato's Cave (5) Illusion and Reality (6) Red
or Blue?
40
Understanding Media? 2 approaches to
understanding media ? media as vehicles
conveying messages meanings ? media texts
Derren Brown, The Matrix, Buffy, Star Wars,
Sex and the City, Videodrome, The Times,
Benetton, Heat ? theories interpretation,
genre, narrative, representation, audience,
postmodernism, ideology, branding, melodrama
41
Understanding Media? media as environments
create new social surroundings ? media
technologies literacy, print, television,
film, radio, telephones, hypertext, blogs,
Wikipedia, magazines digital games? probes
visual and acoustic space, hot and cool,
tetrad, discarnate man, global village,
rear-view mirror, ubiquitous publishing,
anti-environments, educational media
42
Module Evaluation Form? Module Evaluation
Form U75102 Understanding Media
43
Understanding Media? I hope youve found the
module interesting, challenging and
enjoyable? have a good Christmas Break? see you
online ? Module Forum deadline 12.30pm
Monday 14.12.09