The assembly line of greatness: Celebrity in twentieth‐century America

Celebrity capital: redefining celebrity using field theory

“…As Dyer (2004, p. 5) remarked, film stars have a hand in their moulding process and their commodification, but they are only one element of a long assembly line: "they are both labour and the thing that labour produces." The celebrity consists of a body, certain skills, and a psychology, and these are the basis for the celebrity's image, which is co-produced by the celebrity industry that further consummates the looks and appearance, for example (Gamson 1992).…”

Stardom in Multiple Perspectives: What Reality TV Stars Mean for the Star System

“…Besides the emphasis on ordinariness, the original part of this process is the emphasis on the production process of stardom for the audience, which brings about closeness and intimacy between audience and contestants, the would-be stars (Holmes, 2004). Actually, media has attempted to construct this kind of intimacy since the 1950s (Gamson, 1994); however, the increasingly importance of it in program genres has drawn audience attention since the 1990s. Visibility of the production process of stars was thought to be a threat for the construction of stardom, because it destroys the fantasy of fans (Ellis, 1992), and threatens the idea that fame is natural too (Gamson, 2001).…”

“…When Dyer (1998) discussed stars of the 1920s and 1930s, the co-existence of the ordinariness and extraordinariness was mentioned, but he argued that construction of stardom was mainly dependent on the specialness, which separated stars from ordinary people and made them unique. In the 1930s, stars rose because of the discovery of their talents or star quality (Gamson, 1994). The coverage of stars' ordinariness, such as, their personality or ordinary moments in their lives, is just an accessory to their stardom (Dyer, 1998).…”

“…Dyer's work explored the polysemy of stars' images and revealed that the meanings of stars are linked to audience interpretation and their social condition rather than fix to the performance or images of stars on screen or in magazines (1998). Another trend is to view stars as commodities or even industries (Gamson, 1994;Gamson, 2001;Chen, 2007). For example, in china, film stars in contemporary films are always viewed as signs of consuming (Chen, 2007).…”

“…For example, in china, film stars in contemporary films are always viewed as signs of consuming (Chen, 2007). Following this perspective, the production and consumption of stars should be examined at the same time as the political economy background behind stars, particularly in the culture industry, as the latter exerts an important impact on the manufacture of the meaning of stars (Gamson, 1994). The third trend is to treat stars as a media process or "cultural formation" (Turner, 2004), which tends to view stars as products of a series of media activities and interpretations of audiences.…”