Page 14 - Critical Theories of Mass Media

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Chapter outlines xi
decline of aura and the culture industry thesis. New forms of
celebrity are defined and examined in the context of a critical
account of their cultural effects. The tautological nature of contem-
porary fame in which people are frequently famous merely for being
famous, irrespective of any other identifiable talent, is analysed as an
aspect of industrial production processes that are now applied to
culture in an unprecedentedly sophisticated fashion. It is suggested
that, from a critical perspective, celebrity now serves to undermine
the positive role Benjamin foresaw for distraction then.

Chapter 7 Banality TV: the democratization of celebrity

Part 1’s critique of cultural populism is continued with a critical
assessment of theories that find empowering possibilities within the
pervasive phenomenon of celebrity. The counter argument is put
forward that, as the human embodiment of commodity values,
contemporary forms of celebrity represent a further disturbing
expansion of the culture industry’s harmful effects. Banality TV is the
term used to describe celebrity’s widespread democratization within
the increasing conflated genres of lifestyle programmes, Reality TV 1
and chat shows. These formats consist of predominantly unscripted
presentations of everyday life but the idea that this fosters increased
audience involvement and empowerment is critically offset against
the conception of Banality TV as an ultimately disempowering
phenomenon intimately related to the media’s promotion of contin-
gent, superficial detail over substantive thought.

Chapter 8 The politics of banality: the obscene as the
mis-en-scène

The final chapter argues that instead of being an exclusively cultural
phenomenon, Banality TV has profound political consequences.
World events such as 9/11, the Gulf conflicts and the Abu Ghraib
controversy are used in conjunction with Jean Baudrillard’s concep-
tion of the obscene to demonstrate critical media theories’ continued
importance for a fuller understanding of popular culture’s ideologi-
cal qualities.

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