Celebrity Culture, Performative Politics, and the Spectacle of “Democracy” in America

“On Cloud Nine”: Positive memories in American Presidential Speeches (1945–2017)

“…In addition, this rise can be also understood in terms of major media-related developments (e.g. change in the frequency of reporting news) coupled with and intensified by an emphasis on "performance of power" (Burke, 2005), the "modern phenomenon of celebrity" (Elteren, 2013), and a general mood of the "performance of politics" (Alexander, 2010). We cannot of course claim that the current search for performance solely depends on happy material, as political manipulations may be based on negative sentiments, but positive memories can certainly assist those who wish to enhance moments of elation among their listeners.…”

Beyond Celebrity Politics: Celebrity as Governmentality in China

“…Besides the above traditional approaches, a relatively new approach, celebrity politics, focuses on the relationship between celebrity and politics over the past two decades (Bennett, 2011;Cooper, 2008;McKernan, 2011;Mukherjee, 2004;Street, 2004;van Elteren, 2013;van Zoonen, 2006;Weiskel, 2005;West & Orman, 2003;Wheeler, 2013). This approach is rooted in the wider context of the mediatization (Esser & Stromback, 2014;Hjarvard, 2013), personalization (Langer, 2012;Ribke, 2015), and celebritization of politics (Coen, 2015;Petrovová & Eibl, 2019) as well as the rise of populist politics (Moffitt, 2016;Street, 2019).…”

Celebrity and Politics

“…On the other hand, there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about their political activities, even if their impacts are difficult to discern. After all, celebrities’ high profiles afford them access to prominent political spaces like the U.S. Congress, and they are often less knowledgeable about the issues they take on, prone to dramatization, and unaccountable for the policy solutions they propose (Choi and Berger 2010; van Elteren 2013). Regarding human trafficking, Dina Haynes (2014) found that celebrities who testified on it before the U.S. Congress tended to focus on dramatic stories of the sex trafficking of women and girls by criminal gangs and non-Western/non-white men, and they commonly promoted law-and-order solutions that emphasized punishment over prevention.…”

“…Alongside the decline of the Hollywood studio system, the “mediatization” of society also fueled celebrities’ political ascendance. According to Jesper Stromback and Frank Esser, the invention of the television, followed by computers and the introduction of the internet, cell phone technologies, multi-channel cable networks, and personal electronic devices have facilitated a social change process (mediatization) in which the media has become deeply integrated and increasingly influential in different spheres of society (Stromback and Esser 2014; see also van Elteren 2013 and Turner 2014). In this context, a growing number of images, voices, and sounds compete for viewers’ attention, and celebrities, who are often charismatic performers and highly skilled communicators, are especially adept at capturing media attention for various issues and for presenting themseleves as concerned spokespeople for a range of issues (Demaine 2009).…”