Page 151 - Critical Theories of Mass Media

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136 Now
rather than being ‘permeated by cognition’ our recognition and
memory of key figures becomes increasingly open to manipulation
by the culture industry. In opposition to the old-fashioned notion of
heroes who were known for great deeds or qualities (whether moral
or immoral), as human embodiments of the commodity system,
celebrities differentiate themselves primarily through marginal differ-
ences in their personalities to the extent that the term ‘personality’
is now used as a synonym for celebrity. In his seminal essay ‘The
triumph of mass idols’ (in Lowenthal 1961) Leo Lowenthal uses
detailed empirical data from the USA between 1901 and 1941 to
trace and contrast the rise of the entertainment industry’s particular
form of celebrity with the previous tradition of public figures drawn
predominantly from the world of politics, industry or finance. The
central point he makes is that at an empirically identifiable point in
history, a large-scale cultural shift took place. Consumption became
the overarching frame of reference for understanding public figures.
The idols of consumption Lowenthal described represented an early
example of the much more sophisticated role played by today’s
celebrities as embodiments of commodity values. The fact that the
culture industry can be so open about this process is indicated by
the very title of American Idol in which the critical import of
Lowenthal’s original phrase is effectively undermined by its blatant
appropriation. More subtly, today’s Reality TV, docudramas and so
on are often based in sites of commerce (for example, The Apprentice,
The Hotel, The Restaurant, and so on) while celebrity reportage in
various forms frequently focuses upon the consumption patterns of
their lead characters either explicitly (MTV Cribs) or implicitly (The
Osbournes).
While active audience enthusiasts emphasize how viewers exercise
their interpretive skills, Lowenthal’s tone is unequivocal as he
describes the ideologically driven consequences of the social shift he
has outlined:
While we found that around 1900 and even around 1920 the
vocational distribution of magazine heroes was a rather accu-
rate reflection of the nation’s living trends, we observe today
the hero-selection corresponds to needs quite different from those of
genuine information. They seem to lead to a dream world of the
masses who no longer are capable or willing to conceive of
biographies primarily as a means of orientation and education.
They receive information not about the agents and methods of
social production but about the agents and methods of social
and individual consumption. During the leisure in which they read,
they read almost exclusively about people who are directly, or indirectly,
providing for the reader’s leisure time.
(Lowenthal 1961: 116; emphasis added)

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