SOC 932 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Neal Gabler, Celebrity Culture, Sociology

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 932
• Professor: Graeme Metcalf

Document Summary

The social function of celebrity discourse is not a given and is empirically corroborated. We don"t all agree that celebrity culture is important, just as it probably does not enable a general community feeling. Our attention is drawn to the discourse and performances of celebrities, which makes them at least a recurring reference point for our social practices. Considers the process by which ordinary people or public figures are transformed into celebrities: actors, celebrity politicians or socialites famous for being famous. Consequently, the transformation from ordinary person to celebrity can be seen as media ritual that both confirms this separation of common person and celebrity. This in turn legitimates the "myth of the mediated centre," or the myth that the media are the essential gatekeepers to the imagined society"s centre. In effect, new platforms emerge on which one can advertise the self. Ketty ferris: the sociology of celebrity (2007)