International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

Celebrity journalists are news workers who become prominent or famous in their own right and thus objects of media attention. Journalists are a means of chronicling fame and infamy, and stars and leaders depend on journalism to maintain a public profile. Under economic pressures, media industries have tended to associate public personalities with their chroniclers. Repeated contact with the renowned has led journalists to become closely identified with those whose stories they report, resulting in their being elevated to celebrity status themselves and joining the A-list of popular culture celebrities from film, television, and music (→  Popular Culture and the News Media ). Celebrity, which emerged from historical patterns of fame, is a modern phenomenon that arose along with democracy and capitalism. Unlike other forms of influence and power, it is a populist phenomenon. Celebrities come from the people, and their power depends on an affective connection with an audience. Over the past two centuries, the reach of personal reputation has expanded through the expansion of media forms (→  Communication Technology and Democracy ). As media and entertainment industries emerge, they manufacture celebrity as a branded commodity (→  Branding ; Brands ), and the commodification of personality gives expression to individuality as part of consumer and democratic ideologies. In these economic ... log in or subscribe to read full text