Joshua Gamson and Fame

Joshua Gamson (1994) ‘The Celebrity Text’ in Claims to Fame

‘In the old days, fame was a result of achievement. After a body of work,
performing artists acquired a certain status, which was the natural consequence
of accumulated excellence. This inspired others to follow in their
footsteps, to work just as hard to emulate those successes. Today, in this
streamlined age of labor-saving devices, we know there are quicker methods with
which to achieve notoriety. With the refinements of hype, the ultimate
20th Century invention, it is now possible to purchase fame through media
manipulation, to acquire it by dogged self-promotion or simply by association.'

(Charles Marowitz ‘The Angel of Publicity’)

The growth of PR affected the idea of celebrity in three ways:
1. Garnering and shaping attention became more difficult as markets became more niche.
2. News-media has become increasingly dependent on celebrities as the entertainment
section has grown.
3. Visual technologies have increased and emerged allowing for more coverage.

Early celebrity based magazines began to need more stars to focus upon to fill up inches, so ‘expanded the concept of a star’.

Building a star is costly and not everyone can make it. Many stars/celebrities are not only useful for selling and business but also as a business themselves, made for selling. Celebrities have become merchandise, inventory, property, products and commodities, while their fans become markets.

The role of the agent had also changed as they don’t just nurture celebrities, they mould them to fit a particular niche or market.

The publicist is god in the world of the star; the better the publicist, the more famous the star becomes. They can teach the star to be readable and human during interviews allowing the viewer to see behind the veneer of the camera and see the real person being interviewed as vulnerable and normal.

This vulnerable appearance can also be seen in comic articles and sketches where the celebrity allows themselves to be the centre of many jokes. ‘You can have your cake and eat it, too. You can wallow in all the marvelous successes of modern-day American life and at the same time be superior to it because you’re mocking it at the same time that you indulge in it’.

So, in reality, what we really see when stars appear in the media is a cleverly crafted media text, that shows the star in the way their publicist wants them to be viewed. Everything is relative and predicted to show a certain message.