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 



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http://www.ScreenSite.org