Celebrity, Convergence, and the Fate of Media Institutions

Abstract

This chapter explores the fate of “celebrity” in an era when the long-term fate of media institutions is itself profoundly unsettled. It analyses the growing phenomenon of celebrity culture from the point of view of institutional logics of survival, changing institutional and market networks, and the battle of media institutions to shore up their social legitimacy and sources of economic value. The first part of the analysis, on celebrity and mediatization, considers significant revisions to Bourdieu's field theory required to take account of media saturation. The second part, on celebrity as attention trap, considers the specific reasons why media industries need to rely on celebrity as a phenomenon particularly now, when the myth of the mediated center is under threat, or at least requires intense efforts to be sustained in place. Social theory potentially has a great deal to say about how celebrities make a difference in the social domain.

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