Understanding Media

This book is an innovative introduction to the study of the media using a sustained case study of celebrity. Across four chapters, the construction of celebrity is examined using four essential concepts in media studies: history, text, production and audiences. Drawing on current scholarship, key areas of discussion include the claim that there is something unique today called `celebrity cultureĹź; the mediaĹźs role in the celebritisation of politics; the function of symbolic communication in creating images of celebrity; the variety of ways of conceptualising the workings of the media institutions and working practices that produce celebrities; how audiences and individual viewers, readers and listeners actively interpret celebrity texts. The book shows that individuals do not become celebrities as a result of their innately alluring qualities but rather, that celebrity is a resource created and deployed by a range of often interlocking media Ĺź such as the press, television and film Ĺź and to which audiences respond in a range of ways. A substantial introduction sets out why the study of the celebrity necessitates the study of the media and addresses the politics of mediated celebrity. The authors take students carefully through these and other topics, using readings from key research and providing carefully-designed student activities. Case studies range from Louis XIV to Kylie Minogue, from music marketing to popular magazines.