Page 204 - CULTURE IN THE COMMUNICATION AGE

10

STAR CULTURE

Stephen Hinerman

Being a Western, middle-class traveler in the modern global environment can
be quite disconcerting. Traveling has always been the experience of difference
– going from the familiar to the novel. But today such a traveler – especially
someone from the United States – may well be struck by how similar a foreign
community is to one’s own home. While cultural features including language,
food, and religion often change as we cross borders, much that awaits the
Western traveler in almost any new land is already well-known. The films one
leaves back home play in movie theaters across the globe. The music video
channel in the hotel room will likely feature songs the traveler knows well.
Sporting events from back home appear on the screen at the local bar. Visual
images of pop culture stars from the traveler’s homeland are often plastered all
over street-corner kiosks and urban walls.
Familiar things awaiting the traveler do not stop there. Imagine two people –
one a traveler, the other a local – making lists of their most admired heroes. We
would not be surprised if both lists feature many of the same names – movie
stars, music celebrities, sports heroes, and television personalities. Perhaps the
lists would include Madonna, Ricky Martin, Tom Hanks, or Jean-Claude Van
Damme, for example.
Should the overlap of these lists trouble us? Where are the people who have
traditionally been seen as heroes – individuals who have changed the world –
the political figures, public servants, civil rights leaders, and generals? Are we all
the same in our likes and dislikes the world over? For some critics of popular
culture, it seems so. They lament that the entire world has been duped into
worshipping global media entertainment celebrities more than real heroes.
These critics argue that the corporate power of the culture and media
industries has become so pervasive that only a commodified stock of superficial
stars is widely recognizable these days. According to the doomsayers, the ‘cult
of celebrity’ has taken over the world to the detriment of positive values and
clear-headed thinking.
This issue has been part of twentieth-century debates over culture, media,
and globalization. From the sincere and sophisticated critical concerns of

193