Page 165 - Critical Theories of Mass Media

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150 Now
returns in a way unforeseen by Benjamin. Citing Carey’s (1989)
distinction between ritual and transmission modes of communica-
tion, Grindstaff points out that participants in chat shows are less
concerned with the content of their contributions than the act of
participation itself (once again, the medium is the message) – this
makes them much more cooperative with the structuring needs of
the producers. In contrast to those who seek to emphasize audience
empowerment, this ritualistic element of Banality TV makes the
individual a participant from whom dramatic performances of an
often deeply personal nature are extracted, yet it treats them as
easily interchangeable and replaceable elements in an essentially
repetitive process. It is difficult to see how this commodification of
people’s vulnerability represents empowerment more than exploita-
tion. Any short-term agency of the shows’ guests or audiences rarely,
if ever, successfully challenges the core production values of the
genre. For example, even the most violent attempts to damage
studio sets merely provides dramatic footage for programme pre-
views, while any attempt to produce considered arguments can be
cut short by the ubiquitous commercial break. It is important to
emphasize that these excessively willing and active participants
represent an extreme form of the generally much more passive
viewing audience at home, whose various interpretive acts merely
disguise their similar submission to the overarching structural frame-
work within which the producers operate.
Above, Gamson cogently describes the fictional or unreal element
of celebrity that makes it difficult to critically pin down. The
hyperreality of the phenomenon is taken as proof of either its
harmlessness or its neutrality. This domination of the event by the
pseudo-event encapsulates in microcosm an important feature of wider
celebrity culture. Issues such as what constitutes truth or meaningful,
substantive content are subordinate to the enjoyment to be derived
from consuming celebrity images. These can consist of unusual
instances (pictures of Michael Jackson dangling his baby from a
balcony, reports of Mel Gibson drunkenly ranting anti-semitic com-
ments) or more structured interview situations (Martin Bashir’s
famous individual interviews with Michael Jackson and Princess
Diana). Gamson succinctly describes how: ‘celebrity watchers con-
tinually ride the belief/disbelief and fiction/reality axes but with no
particular destination’ (Gamson 1994: 178; emphasis in original).
General celebrity watchers may indeed be more critical than the
stereotypical image of the obsessed fan would imply because they
frequently do not ultimately care about particular celebrities and
may actually enjoy witnessing their downfall. But unlike the fan who
is merely obsessed with one particular celebrity and who can
therefore (hypothetically at least) discover their hero has feet of clay

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