Fame Games: The Production of Celebrity in Australia

by Graeme Turner , Frances Bonner , P. David Marshall

• ISBN13: 9780521791472
• ISBN10: 0521791472
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-10-09
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The areas of publicity, public relations and promotions have been considered to be on the periphery of the media. Yet this revealing new book demonstrates that they form a fundamental component of the media industries, with the decline of hard news being accompanied by the rise of gossip and celebrity. In addition to making a substantial contribution to our understanding of the cultural function of celebrity, Fame Games outlines how the promotion industry has developed and how celebrity is produced, promoted, and traded within the Australian media. While their analysis will inform academic debates on media practice internationally, the authors have taken the unique step of investigating the workings of the Australian promotion industry from within. Interviews with over 20 publicists, promoters, agents, managers, and magazine editors have provided a wealth of information about the processes through which celebrity in Australia is produced.

Table of Contents

List of tables and illustrations	vii
List of interviewees	viii
Acknowledgements	x
Celebrity and the Media	1	(28)
Flashpoints, the everyday and `junk journalism'	2	(6)
The meaning and significance of celebrity	8	(8)
Celebrity coverage: Media survey results	16	(7)
Filling the gap in media research	23	(6)
The Rise of Promotional Culture	29	(31)
Public relations in Australia	34	(9)
Promotion, publicity and the celebrity	43	(12)
Spreading the word: The normalisation of publicity	55	(5)
Producing Celebrity	60	(33)
The agent	61	(8)
The manager	69	(10)
The publicist	79	(6)
The everyday: The media feeding the media	85	(1)
The networks: Australia's Hollywood	86	(5)
Column inches: Public relations and value	91	(2)
Managing the Media	93	(23)
Product enhancement	95	(5)
Damage control	100	(5)
There's no such thing as bad publicity	105	(5)
Accidental heroes	110	(4)
Regulating the `mad dogs'	114	(2)
Core Territory: Celebrities and the Women's Magazines	116	(44)
Women's magazines in Australia	117	(7)
The enduring value of scandal	124	(2)
The personal, the new and the exclusive	126	(15)
Magazines and the celebrity industry	141	(3)
Celebrity and gossip	144	(9)
Training the reader: Teen magazines	153	(7)
Changes in the Media Landscape	160	(19)
The red carpet treatment	160	(4)
The meanings of celebrity	164	(6)
The critique of promotional culture	170	(7)
What do we make of all this?	177	(2)
Notes	179	(10)
Index	189