Vehicle Strand Celebrity Culture/ Celebrity Gossip

1. Vehicle StrandCelebrity Culture/ Celebrity Gossip

2. Celebrity Culture  B&S: celebrity, stardom & marketing: rise of the movie star, stars and product endorsement, celebrity news  The pleasures of celebrity gossip  Key terms: extended family, melodrama

3. Celebrity Gossip Andy Warhol: “In the future, everybody will be world famous for 15 minutes.” • Today = more celebrities, more magazines, more gossip • Why?

4. Who are the Celebrities? ‘stars’: film and TV actors musicians and sports royalty, politicians, business reality TV chefs and nutritionists fashion advisers famous for being famous  why the interest? consult the experts…

6. Celebrity Gossip Why do people find this so interesting?  Joke Hermes has an answer…

7. Hermes’ Theory Joke Hermes (1999)  2 kinds of pleasure from celeb. gossip: (1) extended family(2) melodrama

8. 1. Extended Family Celebrities are brought down to earth You ‘get to know them’Become part of your life/family  They embody ordinary life: relationship problems,(potential) parenthood,frustrations, ambitions  Readers relate to the celebrities  Pleasure = get to know celebrities

10. E.g. heat’s big questions:Geordie Shore’s Vicky Patterson, 25: struggling with weight issues. •  Before and after photos. • Article opens: “Just 600 seconds a day to get fit?” • Vicky: “It’s tough, you definitely get a sweat on. But my workouts are only ten minutes long – so come on, who can’t do that? And the results are worth it – this is the slimmest I’ve ever been and the sexiest I’ve ever felt in my life.”

11. Fitness expert, Laura Williams: • “The reason that these ten-minute workouts are so beneficial is because they are doable. If you’re doing ten minutes of high-intensity exercise that get the heart rate up four or five times a week and you’re watching what you eat, you’ll soon see the benefits.” • heat: “Right, there’s our lunchtimes sorted for the next year.” • Relatable issues • Possible solutions • Inspiration: if Vicky can do it, so can I!

12. 2. Melodrama Celebrities are elevated into stereotypes/larger than life characters • Melodrama: over-the-top, sensational, clichéd, unrealistic Emotional, sentimental, overacting, heroes and villains, good and evil • e.g. Made in Chelsea • e.g. The Only Way is Essex • e.g. Hollyoaks

13. Melodrama & Sensation Pleasure = celebrities doing outrageous things We enjoy the drama, misery, sensationalism, sentimentalism  Life is magnified Celebrities play stereotypical roles (heroes and villains)

14. Melodrama & Morality Pleasure = passing judgement • We enjoy the moral tone of stories • Pleased if ‘hero’ succeeds • Pleased if ‘villain’ punished • Makes you feel good about own life • All part of the melodrama

16. E.g. heat exclusive Article = like an episode of a soap Actors = larger than life  “I think she’s a very insecure person and a very difficult person to maintain; I found that she can be quite possessive, jealous and insecure.”  We love the drama and speculation  Justice = Life with Jordan is exposed in an “amazing no-holds-barred interview...”

17. The Good, The Bad and the Monster • #2 Celebrity 100 (2013); # 19 (2014) • #2 in press (2013); • #2: 101.5 mil followers; #4 (2014) • #3: 40.7 mil followers on Twitter (2013) • #6: 60.8 mil fans on Facebook (2013) • #7 in TV/radio • #9 in money; # 55 (2014) • ‘monstrous’/ multiple personality? • Singer • Activist • Entrepreneur

18. Internet CelebritiesE.g.: Beckii Cruel (aka Rebecca Flint, 19 yrs) #YouTube vlogger #pop idol in Japan aged 14 #dance cover videos, beauty, hair, gaming #91,000 subscribers #approx. 20m total views

19. Internet CelebritiesE.g.: Beckii Cruel "I think the appeal of YouTube is that it's a very personal relationship that people feel they form with their viewers.... It's a different kind of celebrity. Kids now trust their YouTube stars more than regular celebrities with endorsement."

20. Summary Hermes’ two kinds of pleasure from celebrity gossip: (1) extended family: celebrities brought down to earth pleasure = get to know them (2) melodrama: celebrities become larger than life pleasures = drama and passing judgement  Mutations in celebrity culture?

21. Exercise: Family Melodrama(1) Why do you like celebrity gossip? If you don’t, why not? (2) Is Hermes’ account accurate? Are there any other pleasures to celebrity gossip? (3) What is new about new/internet celebrities?

22. Environment StrandClassroom or Cave?

23. Environment StrandClassroom or Cave?  McLuhan (a 60s celebrity)  Education & entertainment  ‘Classroom without Walls’ (1960)  There is no fundamental difference …

24. Audio-Visual Aids Today’s audio-visual aids in class: YouTube, DVD, live-streaming, PPT • Implication = book is primary • Others are all just ‘aids’ • This not always the case...

25. Books: From Acoustic to Visual from acoustic to visual space: prior to the book, instruction was oral: people learned by listening, watching and doing  book = a new ‘visual aid’ to oral instruction (remember Socrates’ worries) book is primary ‘aid’ in the classroom everyone has same book (e.g. B&S) learning is now primarily from books

26. Today Most learning achieved outside classroom: •  TV, magazines, the press, film, radio, internet, etc, i.e. ‘the media’ • Schools and books now less important • “the classroom walls have cracked”

27. Entertainment or Education? Many teachers denounce new media The evils of TV, games, social media… ‘mere entertainment’ • New media threaten education: • Students are ungrammatical, poor attention, more interested inreality tv etc • McLuhan: students know better • We must remember two points…

28. 1. Classics All classics were first light entertainment e.g. Shakespeare’s Henry V  For everyone in Shakespeare’s day 16th century Hollyoaks or Made in Chelsea Now considered great classics  Which will be the TV classics of the future?

29. 2. New Media Forms New media aren’t merely “mechanical gimmicks for creating worlds of illusion” •  Not just entertainment • They are new and unique means of communication and expression • McLuhan’s interest: how media work and what they do to us •  Two effects are interesting here…

30. (i) Increasingly Acoustic New media = increasingly acoustic Use of language evolves More spontaneous and free New media push written English toward the spoken form e.g. email e.g. instant messaging apps e.g. texting e.g. twitter  these written forms are more like spoken language

31. (ii) Increasingly Expressive New media = increasingly expressive Emphasis on facial expression and bodily gesture (compared to books) • e.g. EastEnders argument close-ups e.g. : ) : P : o ; ) + SHOUTING

32. The Evils of New Media? New media thus make communicationless formal • Traditional teachers: this is terrible • Students write essays like txts or email (forum vs. case study) • McLuhan: mass media do change verbal culture  We must try to understand the changes…

33. McLuhan’s Conclusions (1)New media are important for education for 2 reasons: 1. “Whatever pleases teaches more effectively”  to teach new theories, start from what people enjoy e.g. post-feminism > Sex and the City e.g. ideology > The Matrix

34. McLuhan’s Conclusions (2)2. Education should also be about understanding ordinary social experience • Social experience today is mediated Most people today can’t: • analyse a newspaper, e.g. The Times analyse a film, e.g. The Matrix •  It is important to consider these media

35. Conclusion No fundamental distinction between entertainment and education  People are learning all the time We must seek to become aware ofwhat we’re learning Any Questions?

36. Digital Games Criticized for violence, time-wasting • Not just entertainment, but a technology • Look at medium, not message

37. BBC  An explicit combination of education & entertainment • Free: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/games • Science, numeracy, history – EYFS, 4-7 yrs, 11-16 yrs, 16+ • a pleasing teaching medium • accessible form for digital natives

38. Minecraft meets The Tate: Tate Worlds http://www.tate.org.uk/about/projects/tate-worlds-art-reimagined-minecraft Minecraft ‘maps’ that present virtual environments inspired by artworks from Tate’s collection. The maps allow players of Minecraft to explore a range of paintings and sculpture, undertaking various activities and challenges that relate to the themes of the artworks, or exploring how they were made.

39. McLuhan argues: there is no fundamental difference between education and entertainment  what pleases teaches effectively  education should help us understand ordinary experience  How effective is BBC School Games or Tate Worlds?  Classroom or Cave exercise…

40. Classroom or Cave?(1) New Media (2) Classroom Tuition (3) Understanding Media (4) Plato's Cave (5) Illusion and Reality (6) Red or Blue?

41. Understanding Media 2 approaches to understanding media: •  media as vehicles: conveying messages & meanings • media texts: Derren Brown, The Matrix,Buffy, Star Wars, Sex and the City, This is England, Bowling for Columbine, Videodrome, the news, Benetton, Heat • theories: semiotics, genre, narrative, representation, audience, realism, new media, ideology, branding, melodrama

42. Understanding Media media as environments: create new social surroundings • media technologies: literacy, print, television, film, radio, telephones, hypertext, blogs, Wikipedia, magazines digital games, social media • probes: visual and acoustic space, hot and cool, tetrad, discarnate man, global village, rear-view mirror, ubiquitous publishing, anti-environments, educational media

43. Module Evaluation  I hope you’ve found the module interesting, challenging and enjoyable!  Module Evaluation Form: U75102 Understanding Media