Main Article Content

Abstract

Celebrity has become a defining characteristic of our mediatized societies. It is ever-present in the news and entertainment industry boosted by formats such as reality TV, DIY (do it yourself) websites, talk radio and so on. ‘The Demotic Turn’ was coined by Graeme Turner in Understanding Celebrity as a means of defining the expanding growth of ‘ordinary’ while they modify themselves into the content of media through various reality shows, several DIY platforms, and widely, via ‘celebrification.’ It is generally defined as the process by which ordinary people or public figures are transformed into celebrities; for instance, film stars, public figures, celebrity politicians. This transformation from ordinary person to celebrity can be seen as a media ritual that both confirms this separation and legitimates the ‘myth of the media centre’, or the myth that the media are the essential gatekeepers to the imagined society’s centre. Celebrities are manufactured by the celebrity industry which produced and further help to sell other commodities and this can’t be equated with the democratization. This whole process of formation of celebrity leads to his conversion into ‘celetoid’ or a short-lived public figure. This paper tries to examine the role which this mass-mediated fame plays within the construction of cultural identities.

Article Details