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36 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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8 major themes of magazines construction of American Dream fantasy
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1. Beyond subsistence
2. Prosperity and wealth arrive 3. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps 4. We're all in this together 5. Suburban utopia 6. Is that all there is? 7. Massive wealth as moral reward 8. Success just for being you |
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American Dream theme 1
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Beyond Subsistence- early 20th century
-enjoying a life beyond subsistence and mindless labor -creative and skilled professions -entry from the working class to the middle class -help immigrants to assimilate |
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American Dream theme 2
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Prosperity and Wealth Arrive- '20's
-boom times -immigrants and working class join middle class more and more -propserity was available for all willing to work for it -financial liberty and upward mobility for women -women took roles in the industry -women were often on the cover -anxiety about gender roles and emphasis on the importance of self control for women |
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AD theme 3
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Pull Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps- the Depression
-celebrities experienced downward mobility after silent era -stories of their personal failure -emphasized that failture was still an individual's responsability, not due to economic collapse -in accord w/ Alger myth |
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AD theme 4
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We're All in This Together- WWII
-resurgance of nationalism -departure from pursuit of personal gain -collective sacrifice -showed how celebs suffered from war too -wealth meant donating and volunteering to war effort -patriotism and the greater good were central |
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AD theme 5
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Suburban Utopia- post WWII
-emphasized middle class lifestyles stars allegedly led -modest suburban homes -emphasis on family -blamed women's inability to know their place in the home for high divorce rates -Congress feared breakdown of economic structure with so much wealth -Red Scare made material success and individual effort seem morally superior than Russians |
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AD theme 6
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Is That All There Is- '60s & '70s
-focus on rebellious behavior and celebrities as anti-heroes who challenged social norms -ending of studio contracts made celebrities more independent -their images weren't so carefully crafted -stories contested social norms -focus on loneliness at the top |
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AD theme 7
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Massive Wealth as Moral Reward-'80s
-promised a fantasy of wealth and riches -wealthy became celebrities themselves -wealthy had earned their place -gap between rich and poor grew w/ little complaint |
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AD theme 8
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Success Just for Being You- '90s
-fame has never been so accessible -celebs don't sell lifestyles anymore, they sell themselves- "lifies" -changes in consumption and technology during economic downturn -celebrity seems like a viable alternative against economic struggle |
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"Reading Gossip Mags: the Imagines Communities of 'Gossip' and 'Camp'"
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Joke Hermes
-symbolic interactionalist -2 types of readers: serious and camp -within serious: extended family repertoire and melodrama -camp: ironic reading to place them above the magazines |
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"Television Personality System"
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John Langer
-TV produces personalities, not stars, which are unchanging -TV creates a fantasy to make personalities seem normal to us -TV dominates by selecting what realities to display on TV -TV is only good when it seems real -gives meaning to the events it portrays -TV personalities are what are famous not the actors |
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"Intimately Intertwined in the Most Public Way"
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P. David Marshall
-celebrity journalism is the intersection of the public and private lives of celebs -celebrity journalism lessens the superhuman qualities we attribute to celebs w/ intimate interviews -proliferation due to the need to differentiate articles and compete- hence pseudo-event -also bc we value celebs so much we think they're newsworthy in and of themselves -press is a necessity for everything in Hollywood -mediates relationship between celeb and public -relates to "Star is Born/Authenticity" |
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"Triumph of Mass Idols"
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Leo Lowenthal
-about biographies -shift from idols of production i.e. businessmen to idols of consumption i.e. celebs -celebs are portrayed negatively, success is accidental -superlative language used to make celebs seem extraordinary -colloquial language to make them seem relatable -bio's are not for educational purposes anymore |
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"Celebrity and Religion"
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Chris Rojek
-decline in religion -humans desire to change the symbolic into the real -celebs have a magical effect on us- charisma, that something superhuman- we use relics and ritual to make them real -following celebs provide a sense of community -we like to watch them rise from nothing i.e. Jesus -we derive comfort from being involved in something greater (following Jesus -> following celebs) |
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"Beauty and the Female Body"
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Kathy Davis
-feminine beauty has always been idealized -mass media proliferated these ideas -women are free to do what they want with their bodies -but once they do something to change it i.e. use that freedom they are again entrapped by societal pressure on beauty standards |
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precursors to modern cinema
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1. magic lantern
2. thermatrope 3. zeotrope 4. development of celluloid |
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why no movie stars pre-1907?
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1. lack of intertextuality- not enough movies for an actor to be identifiable
2. lack of fiction films- no "actors" 3. lack of discourse on acting |
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what made the concept of the star possible
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1. shift from actuality films to fiction
2. improved tech made films longer- more character dvpmt 3. Motion Picture Patent Company- vertical integration of film (production, distribution, and exhibition) 4. permanent film exhibition venues |
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stages of the development of the star
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1. discourse on acting
2. development of the picture personality 3. the star! |
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Sternheimer's def of celebrity
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anyone who is watched, noticed, and known by a cultural mass of strangers
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symbolic interactionalist
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-identity construction is not an individual experience
-it is based on our interactions with others -discussion of celebrities provides a framework to construct our social selves |
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functionalist
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celebrity stories provide common ground for interactions within a diverse society, providing social cohesion and a healthy society
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conflict theorists
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-celebrities promote wealth inequality
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Frankfurt School
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-popular culture distracts the masses from their economic interests and dupes them into ignoring the domination of the elite
-culture industries provide idealogical legitimation of and the integration of individuals into existing capitalism |
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Key figures in semiotics
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Umberto Eco- "semiotics is concerned with anything that can be taken as a sign"
Roland Barthes- objects, gestures, images etc communicate signs Charles Sanders Peirce- "a sign is something which stands to somebody something in some capacity" |
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semantics
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what a sign means
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semiotics
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how the meaning of a sign is created
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process of signification
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signifier- sound image; the form the sign takes (c-a-t)
signified- the idea attached to the signifier; concept the sign reps (cat) sign- combination of the above |
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text
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an assemblage of signs
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intertextuality
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various assemblages of signs we encounter
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denotation
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explicit or literal meaning of a sign
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connotation
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the attitude we have about the sign
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metonymy
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figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated
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trope
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gestures, images, icons etc. that have been repeated over time and tend to convey certain connotations
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codes
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preexisting assumptions, values, connotations between signs
things that are heavily coded become tropes |
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"Is Straight the New Queer"
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Rahman
-conflict between Beckham's gay and straight representations offset one another -the fact that they can be reconciled makes him more masculine -the dichotomy shares our preception of signs but also shows that signs are what we make them i.e. tropes -significance of gender roles -he is a pseudo-event- respect vs. ridicule |
