The past two years has seen the media landscape undergo significant developments. New technology, such as the Internet, has fuelled the emergence of new media forms and schisms within the media industry. Mario Armando Lavandeira’s Hollywood celebrity gossip website, PerezHilton.com, exploits a new brand of journalism – blogging. There are innumerable media theories which could be used to analyse such a specific example of the media. This essay will explore Mass Culture Critique and its critical relation to PerezHilton.com by investigating mass communication concepts such as hegemony, aesthetic levels, economic motivation, and passive consumers.
Mass society theory emerged in the late nineteenth century when the invention of the
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Internet gossip column, PerezHilton.com, is not governed by these requirements. Lavandeira does not have a preset amount of space to fill or deadline to meet, nor does he worry about talent; most of the entries are his own and he does not censor posts from voluntary contributors of the public. Instead of relying on public votes to determine the website’s content, Lavendeira writes about every A-list celebrity, allowing the consumer to choose from a myriad of categories. PerezHilton.com is in constant update 17 to 18 hours a day; whenever a story breaks, Lavandeira is the first to report and endorse his self-proclaimed position as the “Queen of All Media”. Mass Media theorists fail to admit that mass media are at least honest about the lack of originality in content; endless inventiveness and variety are not possible in any field.
“The mass media do not use the best brains or freshest talents.” Elitists assumed that first-rate minds are imaginative and possess good judgement and communication skills by default. Infamous celebrity blogger, Lavandeira acquired popularity through his creative skills and non-standardised competences. “The mass media do not print or broadcast the best material that is submitted to them.” Here, the question arises on how to define the ambiguous term “best”. Every piece of information and material regarding a celebrity submitted to Lavandeira is posted
Jenkins argues that American popular culture will be redefined by the struggles over convergence and media. With the idea of profit in mind,
Media sources in current culture are construed as important as they communicate the dominant ideology promoted by the bourgeois which the lower-class public should adhere to as the correct social norm (Kress, 1988). The medium which these ideologies are shown in are important, as different medium are used by different cultures. This essay will focus on comparing print with online media through analysing the Guardian and the Australian from August 31st. This will be done by looking at the types of news shown in each, the constraints and advantages of each medium, advertising, the concept of ownership, and the way the media convinces the public of their ideologies through hegemony.
A celebrity is not a person known for his/her talent or achievement, but an individual recognized for his/her reputation created by the media. The phase of stardom is slippery, and media may choose to represent celebrities varying from exaggerated admiration to mockery. The three texts chosen, movie "Sunset Boulevard", feature article "Over the Hilton" and television show "Celebrity Uncensored Six" are texts presenting different perception of celebrities than their usual images - either corrupted by the encircling media, overloads oneself with self-indulgence, or just mocks celebrity in a broad spectrum. Such media items empower and impresses the audience by perceiving celebrities as people who pay the price of privacy to gain well
The context of production and the context of consumption are the two dimensions that are relevant to the reason the message is being communicated. The fact that the only information about the writer of the article is a first name at the bottom of the page signifies that who wrote the article is not significant, but who owns it may be. Inquisitr, the media outlet producing the representation, is a news website whose goal is to publish the latest trending news and to ensure that readers “never miss the internet’s hottest stories.” According to the available audience demographics, the most popular section that readers browse is the celebrity and entertainment section and the site’s target audience is women, people with some college education, and people who work from home. Evidently, Inquisitr is built and branded as a site for the every day internet user. As a result, substantial, quality news is not the priority, but rather quick and compelling articles that have the potential to go viral. The story of Harold Henthorn and the death of his wife then is not written as the tragedy that it is, or even as a legal recount of the case, but as a brief, flashy murder mystery story that intrigues and engrosses the reader. Production and consumption of a representation, therefore, are not independent, but tightly linked in a way that creates the general
The two authors acknowledge that the use of social media sites has brought a number of opportunities and goes on to identify that it has also lead to formation of tribal groups on these sites which revolve around their preferred celebrity. They employ the term and of Netnography which is the study on individual behaviour on the internet that utilizes online market research to gather data. In the case of the article, they attempt to research the nature of these tribal groups as well as analysing the passion that drives them support and invest in a celebrity brand.
Media sensationalism creates an interesting phenomenon; more often than not, the comments made by varying levels of popular culture stars become catch phrases, buzz words, and the be-all end-all definition of an individual. These occurrences happen, for better or worse, and an individual becomes intrinsically linked to those statements for the rest of their living life and well after. Sometimes these comments are uplifting and promote the betterment of man; but sometimes they serve to berate or belittle a group as well, often times with very little thought being put into what has been disseminated. In either case, they are merely the opinions of an individual who happens to be famous. At times, the subject of opinion may hold little
An “I told you so” echoes from the grave of Neil Postman as a Reality TV star lead the polls for the GOP primary nomination in the 2016 presidential race. Meanwhile, a symbol of the most turbulent times in American history was recently removed from a state capitol and designated for museum status. Today’s latest social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, has assisted the Internet ‘steady growth and influence of society for over twenty years now. Three authors, Neil Postman, Daniel Solove, and Walter Lippmann have explored how various media and symbols have shaped society through history to today. Postman, in Amusing Ourselves to Death, Public Discourse in Age of Show Business saw the dangers in the medium of television turning the serious subjects of religion, the news, and particularly politics into forms of entertainment. In his book, future of reputation, David Solove argues, the law must meet the challenge to address these ever-changing technologies’ effect on one’s reputation and strive to protect the privacy while ensuring the freedom of speech. In the book, Public Opinion, author Walter Lippmann, explores how symbols are planted by authority figures to corral the public into their camp. While each author takes a different approach, each provides insights into a changing world and a route for an informed society to achieve better citizenship.
The advantages of having information so obtainable is that we can get information that we would like to know at the tip of our hands. Now that we have smartphones it is nice that we can look up addresses to certain places and be able to get the navigation application direct you to the location. It is nice to be able to get information that we need so easily I enjoy that it is so accessible. I constantly use the internet to look for information that I need. It can be to look up what certain person have contributed to history and how it has changed us. I also use it to find out side effects on medication or what is the medication is used to treat. This has helped me a lot at my job.
Dubrofsky & Wood (2015) define the impact of Twitter as a foundation for this new phenomenon, which presents the superficiality of self-empowerment for women: “Because what celebrities tweet is presented as being under their control” (p.97). This type of “make over” is how women are perceived as being empowered, yet they are still being sexually and objectively exploited for the male gaze. This how tabloid magazines have utilized the prosumer strategy to revive the public interest in women willingly objectifying themselves for the male.
This picture is a perfect portrayal of celebrity culture in today’s era. The desire to be virtually ‘connected’ and share everything in one’s life is the new trend. And this has resulted from the constant competition from the new community of ‘microcelebrities’, which is based on achieving fame through broadcasting oneself through media. One of the demeaning aspect of the picture is the lack of genuineness and enforcement of stylish lifestyle on the audience which makes it loose the emotional quotient.
In many of her videos, Youtuber Shoe0nHead critiques popular entertainment sources such as Cosmopolitan Magazine and Buzzfeed.com by noting how they put little effort into their work, similar to what Gabler notes. However, she dissuades her audience of over 800,000 subscribers from resigning to everything that mainstream entertainment presents to them. Her channel is an example of how critique is essential to improving
Have you ever wondered what influences us to behave the way we do? Look a certain way? Or even looked for an explanation to what causes us to apply a certain perspective regarding personal and controversial issues? One of the answers to these questions may revolve around the influence we absorb from celebrities. A definitive term for celebrity is an iconic figure to a category or group who has achieved success in one or multiple aspects of their lives. As a result, these individuals have drawn in publicity and fame. Over the years with the advances in media and other forms of communication, celebrities have become topics of discussion worldwide, rather if it’s at school, with colleagues or at the dinner table, it is fair to say that
Using this explanation, this essay underlines the matters of how the entertainment industries has taken full control through social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Furthermore, it also typifies how such industries emphasis significantly into its logics and practices through its audience and fan participation. Supported Research is justified by various theorists/examples. This includes Prensky, Katz and Blumler, Dan Gilmore, David Gauntlet, Charles Leadbeater and Jenkins himself.
Mass media plays an important role in the society by providing entertainment, information and acting as the government’s overseer. Several scholars have developed philosophies that help people understand how mass media fulfills its roles in the society. For example, Horkheimer and Adorno have constructed theories that explain the functions and impacts of mass media in the society across the globe (Mosco, 2008). The central theme in all mass communication models entails the meaning of media contents, which include the images and texts and their influence on the target audience. The perception of the target audience concerning the text and images in the media are what form the basis of these theories. This essay discusses two hypothetical frameworks: the political economy and cultural studies theories, including their similarities and differences, and how they help in understanding the relationship between the media and society.
Popular culture is a term that holds various meanings depending on where it 's being defined and the context of its use. It is usually recognized as the language or people’s culture that prevails in a society at a point in time. As social researcher Brummett explains in his book “Rhetorical Dimensions of Popular Culture”, pop culture reflects the characteristics of social life, where the publicly are most actively involved. Popular culture is known as the ‘culture of the people’. This culture is determined by the interactions between people within their daily activities, for instance, dressing styles, use of language, greeting rituals and the ways that people behave in public, etc. are all examples of popular culture. Popular culture is also diverted by the mass media (Abbott and Sapsford, 1987).