EXAM 2 Flashcards
CASHMORE “STARBUCKS”
- Celeb culture has done to politics what Starbucks has done to coffee
- Politics now lack variety, put it’s quickly prepared and easy to consume
STAGED CELEB: ROJEK
- Calculated technologies and strategies of performance and self-projection designed to achieve a status of monumentality in public culture
Ø Donald Trump for example: brand of capitalism on steroids
Ø Politicians are celebrities, celebrities can become politicians
POWER VS POWERLESS ELITE: ALBERONI
- Stars’ sphere of influence limited to the level of culture
Ø Alberoni Argued that there were always people that were easily recognizable, but didn’t have a ton of institutionalized power
Ø He called these the POWERLESS ELITE: well-known, but sphere of influence is limited to the culture
TV AND POLITICAL CELEB
- Allowed politicians seem more real
- JFK/ Kennedy was going to win, (handsome) while Nixon was sweating. Tv had an impact on the debate
- Radio and newsreels made politicians less remote
- TV’s emphasis on appearance celebrified politicians
- Televised debates, speeches, campaign stops
SPORTS AS THE NEW SEX?
- Sports completely permeated the logic of the marketplace in consumer goods
- Cashmore argues sports as the new sex
- Sports stars connected with positive qualities: good health, clean living, etc
- 1990’s a lot of celebs misbehaving, so the Hollywood star was less and less reliable
GENDERED AND RACIALIZED SPORTS ADVERTISING
- Michael Jordan, Maria Sharapova
- Michael Jordan upended the racialized stigma with the Nike “Jordan”: the MOST successful branding partner
- David Beckom: not the best, but still got all the deals as a white man, while Michael Jordan, was ALWAYS on top, and it took him way longer
SPORTS AND AUTHENTICITY
Sport retains a substantial degree of authenticity
- Sports players can manipulate their image, but they still have to actually preform (play the game)
- The actions of athletes and
players, while playing the game, continue to be regarded as genuine and trustworthy- For example: growth hormone: athletes: ewww gross, actors: yeah it makes sense
- Tiger woods: downfall of cheating VS lance armstrong downfall of juicing. WHETHER OR NOT ITS CONNECTED TO THE SPORT MATTERS!!!
- It is this quality of authenticity that contributes significantly to its popular culture appeal
- Cultivating authenticity more and more vital for brand promotion
- Brands turn to sports icons for advertising
- Authenticity contributes to sports stars’ charisma
CELEB JOURNALISM
Ø Celeb dependent on a system of ‘democratically inspired’ value that was derived from popular audiences
- Journalism has similar history in its association with the development of democracy
Ø Individuality that celebrities embodied intersected with expansion of consumer capitalism
Ø Profiles of celebrities offer mechanism for social connection
Ø THE FACT THAT THE PERSON IS FAMOUS ESTABLISHES THE NEWS WORTHINESS
SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE CITIZEN JOURNALIST
Ø Digital communication technologies mean images of anyone can be circulated globally and instantaneously
- Upending how celebrities are produced and how celebrity is practiced
- Citizen journalists producing footage in parallel with professional news agencies
Ø Celebrity use of social media contribute to reports about themselves
- Goffman’s front stage/back stage
CELEB GOSSIP
Gossip: casual or unconstrained conversations about other people that are based on rumor, hearsay, whispers, tittle-tattle, or downright lies (Cashmore, 2014)
* Gossip is a “powerful social elixir”
o Tönnies: gemeinschaft and gesellschaft
* Modernity weakened the social fabric of family and tradition
* Societies became rootless and impersonal as people associate mostly on the basis of self-Interest
THE POPULAR FEMININE
CELEBRITY GOSSIP SEEN AS EXCESSIVE, ADDICTIVE, POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS
* POPULAR CULTURAL PRODUCTS PRODUCED FOR, MARKETED TO, AND CONSUMED PRIMARILY BY WOMEN
* POPULAR TEXTS THAT DOCUMENT MATTERS OF THE HOME, BODY, AND RELATIONSHIPS ARE FEMININIZED
BOURDIEU AND HABITUS
Ø We’re talking about the difference of structural and individuals
Ø Objectivists see the world as entirely shaped by structure
Ø Objectivism explains individual behavior by social structures, like markets, social classes, populations and organizations
Ø We can lose a lot of agency when we only focus on those structures
Ø When we focus only on structure/ macro influences we ignore all the ways individuals process things
Ø Bordieu is in the middle, he doesn’t discount structure but we need to take into consideration people are located in a particular structure space always , which is defined by your social structure class position
Ø Important to understand because this has a huge impact on the kinds of resources you have access to
Habitus: interpretive schemas, largely unconscious, that tell us how the world works, how to evaluate things, and provide guidelines for action
- Individuals who share a structural location or class position have similar, repetitive experiences which produce a common habitus which, in turn, structures their social practices
- They tell us how to evaluate things
- OUR STRUCTURAL POSITION SHAPES OUR HABITUS
- Shapes the types of experiences we have therefore shaping our social practices
- Opportunity to build their cultural capital
Culture is integral to the social organization of domination
- Cultural goods (e.g., music, high-brow literature, food, furniture) are always stamped by social class
- Lifestyles, tastes, aesthetic judgments, and social mannerisms of the dominant class become socially legitimate
- Society is hierarchically structured, and cultured goods are attached to certain social classes
- Ex: ugly but very expensive furniture
- Social classes produce relative homogenous lifestyle patterns
- When you see these things of culture we can connect them to class positions
Classes and class fractions produce relatively homogenous lifestyle patterns
- It is possible to identify common class-based cultural patterns across music, theater, food, and home decorating
Gender is culturally replicated through fashion and beauty styles
RACE AND THE CELEBRITY BODY
The beauty system articulates social hierarchies based on class, race, and ethnicity
- Fat phobia and the connection to anti-Black racism ( Fearing the Black Body)
Dominant discourses of the body enable privileged groups to set the standards
- White, bourgeois, thin
The Sporting Body in American Culture
- Black sporting body part of racist discourse
- Serena Williams
- Michael Jordan
RELAITY TV CELEB
- Reality tv used as a stepping stone to launching an influencer career
- Reality tv is an unprecedent advancement because it allows the audience to be empowered (ex: audiences can vote)
REALITY TV AND THE DEMONIC TURN
Demotic turn: the increasing visibility of the “ordinary person” as they turn themselves into media content
- The rise of reality tv has lead an increase of the amount of ordinary people that are on tv, and ordinary people who have been granted the status of celebrity
- They haven’t “earned” it
Celetoid
- Seen as “talentless” and the fame is short lived
- Hyper visible -> invisible FAST
Entertainment industry still hierarchical and exclusive
- Through reality tv fame has become democratized
- Because ordinary people can become famous, the barrier of becoming famous is breaking down
- Suggests that there is a universal entitlement, meaning everyone can enjoy it if they’re lucky enough to get chosen
- Therefore, fame is no longer reserved for people that have talent, know someone, etc
CELEB BASED REALITY TV
Reality TV emerged as a way to re- energize celebrity status
Ø Dancing with the Stars
Ø Celebrity Big Brother
Ø Stars on Mars
Goffman’s front stage/back stage
BRITNEY: two people goofing off “I just want you guys to see the real us” is the back stage
REALITY TV AND LABOUR
- Professionalism
- Character archetypes
- Celebrity about masking the labor
- Gatekeeping
- The contract
- The “durable participant”
- Celetoid falls into this category
UNIONS AND CELEB TV
- Reality tv stars do not have unions, therefore do not have much protection either
- Unionized jobs, pay more (organized comes together and demand higher wages)
- So, the difference in wages comparison reality tv vs normal tv are great
REALITY TV AS VOYERUISM
- What we like about it is getting a glimpse into other people’s secrets, love lives, etc
- If reality tv show participants didn’t act like that, would we still watch?
We create the conditions for bad stuff (ex: sexual assault) and we enjoy watching it
- If reality tv show participants didn’t act like that, would we still watch?
FAME AND PRESS
Ø Whether it’s bad or good press, press is still press, building their popularity
Ø publicity would try to put a lid on affairs, crime, bad behavior, etc
Ø But on the other hand, they still want them to be talking about them
Ø Balance of: don’t want to be cancelled, but don’t want to be ignored
Ø NOW: being a serial killer is an ABSOLUTE in reaching fame / celeb status
MERTONS THEORY OF ANOMIE AND STRAIN (EXPLANATION)
MERTONS THEORY OF ANOMIE AND STRAIN
Ø Trying to understand how people end up as criminals AND why most people DON’T
Ø ARGUMENT: as a culture, there are certain goals we promote as the most important to achieve. we think financial success is the most important goal we can achieve. In other words, we are socially into thinking financial success is the #1 goal.
Ø ALSO ARGUED: there is a culturally approved WAY of achieving that goal. The primary route is traditional: go to school, get a good education, a good job, and good salary
Ø BUT: not everyone has equal opportunity to achieve this goal, ex: limits to higher education
Ø This is where the idea of strain comes in
Ø For a huge percent of the population, there is a huge gap of what they want to achieve and what they can, and in that gap is strain
Ø For people who are experiencing strain, we can adapt to it in 1/5 ways :
MERTONS THEORY OF ANOMIE AND STRAIN (5 WAYS TO ADAPT TO STRAIN)
- CONFORMITY
Ø Most people adapt to that strain by conformity
Ø You still get a job, even if it doesn’t pay well
Ø Still go to school for ex, but takes out lots of loans- INNOVATION
Ø Most closely related to murder
Ø If a person adapts to the strain through innovation, they look at other means to make their money
Ø Ex: make cash through being a drug dealer, trafficking
Ø You still wan the financial goal, you know you can’t achieve it by normal means, so you innovate - RITUALISM
Ø They scale down that goal
Ø Most of us want to be a million, ritualist would scale it down and say “I just want to pay all my dues, food on the table and survive” - RETREATISM
Ø “you know what, I don’t even want this culturally approved goal”
Ø Wanting to be rich is gross, so is the path to getting there
Ø Someone who might retreat from society, turn to drugs and alcohol - REBELLION
Ø Rejecting that goal, not just fine without, but what to blow the whole thing up
Ø Political revolutionaries
- INNOVATION
FAME AND STRAIN
Ø Now: being famous is also a culturally wanted goal
Ø Access to fame is restricted
- Fame derives value from its scarcity
- Gap between the people who want to be famous and those who really are
Ø Merton’s adaptations related to fame
- Most people conform: ex: want to be an actor, work really hard, might land a commercial or something
- Innovation: crime as a route to money and fame - Ritualism: managed expectations of fame (celetoid) - Rebellion: resistance/ rejects to celebrity culture and challenges this as a goal In the first place - Retreatism: seeking anonymity (I don’t want fame at all)
SERIAL KILLERS AND FAME
Fame vs. notoriety
* Boorstin: famous for being famous
* Media technologies enable all types of fame
* Media also perpetuate moral panic around serial killing
* Crime in the pursuit of fame
Ø 70-80's: the number of serial killers that were around was at its peak Ø Probably because of the effects of world war 2 Ø 80's the best way to sell your newspapers is if they have killing in them
SCANDAL AND INFAMY
- Scandalize: to shock by a real or imagined violation of propriety or morality
○ Condemnation, indifference, resentment, approval
○ Celebrity scandal was always the news
○ If we consider what scandalizes us, it reflects our own beliefs/views/positions on behaviours
○ A few different reactions to being scandalized: condemnation, resentment, etc.- For celebrities, scandal is often a valuable but extremely volatile resource
○ Infidelity, divorce, sex scandal
○ Gossip stories could help the celebrities
○ A very delicate balance between keeping your name in the news but the really bad shit is not out there
- For celebrities, scandal is often a valuable but extremely volatile resource
CELEB SCANDAL HISTORY
○ They used to be better able to keep stuff from the public prior to the 60s
○ As the tech got better and paparazzi got bigger, it became harder
○ Popular photo of Princess Kate sunbathing topless with Prince William in the middle of the ocean
○ Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton (the start of scandal and first big paparazzi photo) made the bad celebrity era kick off
○ Scandal can be a valuable resource for these celebrities, it is almost a mythical origin story of the Kardashians (sex tape with Ray J)
○ Celebrities need people to talk about them to perpetuate their celebrity
○ In the case of scandals it is risky, because the public’s reaction to the scandals can be unpredictable
CATCH AND KILL
○ Tactic used by media companies, typically tabloids, is something that happens to protect celebrity reputation and keep a lid on scandalous behaviour that comes out
○ Ex. If someone goes to the toronto star and says “I’m gonna pay u for this story but u can’t give it to anyone else” then the celebrity is in cahoots and says i’ll pay you and give you a better story
