Dear all
Apologies for cross-posting and further apologies for shameless
self-promotion: you'll find a more critical account of how
self-promotion works in an era of digital television and DIY fame in the
final chapter of the book below.
Hope its useful to some on the list.
Best
James
Just published:
James Bennett (2010) Television Personalities: Stardom and the Small
Screen, Routledge.
Praise for the book:
'Television Personalities is going to be one of the defining texts in
teh fields of television, and celebrity studies. It is an outstanding
piece of scholarship that is beautifully, accessibly written' - Sean
Redmond, Editor of Celebrity Studies Journal
'In this useful, thoughtful book, Bennett investigates a crucial element
that has gone missing from our current understanding of television:
prceisely how it participates in the production and consumption of
celebrity. He explores the longstanding assumptions about how television
stardom works, making the book essential reading for anyone interested
in contemporary television'. Graeme Turner, Professor of Critical and
Cultural Studies, University of Queensland, Australia.
About the book:
Celebrities have come to increasingly dominate the media and its study
in contemporary culture. Although acknowledged as part of this general
rise in the importance of celebrity culture, television’s specific forms
of stardom have until now remained largely under-theorised. Television
Personalities: Stardom and the Small Screen examines how television
personalities function as commodities, and also function ideologically,
thus relating them to issues of class, national identity, sexuality,
gender and social history.
Television Personalities sets out a new way of considering televisual
fame, arguing that it must be understood on its own terms, and
establishing the television personality as a particular set of
performers whose celebrity is constructed through discourses of
ordinariness, authenticity and intimacy. It demonstrates how televisual
fame is the product of skilled performances that function at the very
heart of why we enjoy television, and the cultural and ideological role
television plays in society.
The book is divided into three sections that trace the historical
development of televisual fame from the 1950s through to the emergence
of ‘DIY’ celebrity in the digital era. It examines the economics,
aesthetics, production, histories, futures and ideological functions of
the television personality across a range of examples, including:
* Benny Hill, Steve Irwin, Oprah Winfrey, Cilla Black, Simon Cowell,
Ricky Gervais, Alan Titchmarsh, Nigel Lythgoe
* the stars of YouTube and television’s smaller screens
* Extras, Top Gear, The Naked Chef, The Weakest Link.
Television Personalities offers an exciting, engaging approach to
studying and understanding the most prominent and popular performers in
television and celebrity culture. It is an original, indispensable guide
for undergraduate and postgraduate students of media, television and
celebrity studies, as well as those interested in digital culture more
widely.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Television-Personalities-Stardom-Small-Screen/dp/0415481899/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1286983982&sr=1-1
Companies Act 2006 : http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/companyinfo
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Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite
http://www.ScreenSite.org
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