Page 161 - Critical Theories of Mass Media

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146 Now
Rojek’s response to the argument that celebrity may simply
provide a new take on Marx’s conception of false consciousness is
illuminating. He asserts that debates over the positive or negative
social aspects of celebrity are fruitless and that the social impact of
each individual celebrity needs to be assessed on the basis of its own
6
individualized empirical study . This claim is puzzling to the extent
that its emphasis upon the non-generalizability of celebrity’s impact
somewhat contradicts Rojek’s own admirably systematic approach to
its various processes and effects. Furthermore, the illustrative exam-
ple he uses to further his case raises more questions than answers.
Thus, he argues in relation to Princess Diana’s anti-land mines
campaign and its success at raising public awareness that: ‘Whether
this outcome was the accomplishment of an essentially meretricious
and self-serving personality is beside the point. The campaign
helped to relieve suffering, and this relief could not have been
accomplished so readily by other available means’ (Rojek 2001: 91).
From a more critical perspective, it is certainly not ‘beside the point’
nor politically insignificant if the only available means to ensure the
greater equality of power between the social classes is dependent
upon the manufactured and heavily mediated appeal of ‘an essen-
tially meretricious and self-serving personality’. Highlighting the
significance of this lamentable lack of ‘other available means’ is a
major and persistently relevant contribution of critical theory to
today’s mediascape.
Like Benjamin’s attempt to find socialist potential within the then
new medium of photography, optimistic interpretations of the way in
which celebrity undermines traditional authority fail to undermine
the central case of the culture industry thesis. They ultimately rest
upon a notion of re-enchantment based upon either the transfer-
ence of religious beliefs to the new field of celebrity or the ironical
consumption and re-appropriation of celetoids/celeactors for the
enjoyment of the masses. In the first instance, the mere transference
of religious feelings from one realm to another represents exactly
that, a transference rather than their radical undermining of the
traditional practices that cultural populists are keen to claim as a
positive function of celebrity. In the second case, such a transference
may actually suggest that, rather than being subverted, traditional
authority has in fact become transformed into a more deeply
entrenched, yet less immediately obvious process of cultural com-
modification. Oppressive, traditional forms of authority and the focal
points of their power were at least easily identified and subjected to
various forms of open and covert resistance. In contrast, the
simultaneously pervasive and invasive nature of commodity culture
makes it subject to more, not less, manipulation by vested interests:
the greater dispersal of traditional authority does not necessarily

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