[Discussion] Media and Celebrity

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture (WPCC)
Issue 3, Autumn-Winter 2005/06

Media and Celebrity

While all societies have coveted those seen as 'especially remarkable'
(Alberoni, 1972: 75), the mass media have unleashed previously
unavailable means to the nurturing of stardom. Illustrated by an
increasing prominence in some news outlets, a dominance of sectors of
the magazine markets and in the upsurge of reality TV, celebrity has
come to constitute a central part of the media industries.

The 'Media and Celebrity' issue of WPCC takes the viewpoint that there
is a need for scholars of media and cultural studies to critically
examine this trend. The issue aims to bring together a range of
contemporary and historical approaches that will shed light on today's
fame culture, on a production and consumption level as well as in terms
of wider social analysis.

Areas of interest include:

   1. Analyses of trends/ historical moves in the constitution of a
      celebrity culture
   2. The production of stardom: PR, branding and media professionals
   3. The inter-relations between the media, fame culture and politics
   4. Celebrity discourse in journalistic output
   5. Celebrity magazines and reality TV
   6. The consumption of celebrity
   7. Celebrity from a non-Western perspective
   8. The cultural functions of celebrity

Applicants may submit abstracts of no more than 200 words to Sofia
Johansson (e-mail address shown below). The deadline for the submission
of abstracts is *Friday the 18th of March.*

WPCC is online at the following web address.

	Sofia Johansson
Communication and Media Research Institute
University of Westminster
Harrow Campus
Watford Road
Middlesex HA1 3TP
UK
Email: zofiajohansson@yahoo.com <mailto:zofiajohansson@yahoo.com>
Visit the website at http://www.wmin.ac.uk/mad/page-880