Chapter 25 – Mass Media and the Star System
Introduction:
Stars/Celebs in our society today engrained into our culture
Entire industries devoted to our fascination of them; “Celeb news” Tabloids, Magazine, Television shows, Websites
But why is it that we care so much about them?
I mean, why do I care that Jessica Simpson gained weight?
Why is it that Michael Phelps hitting a bong has equal news coverage as a national crisis?
Perhaps it’s because we enjoy watching other’s misfortunes or we like to live vicariously through them?
Maybe It’s because these “stars” represent the ideal person we want to be, or people we definitely don’t want to be become...
Truth be told, we have had a fixation with the “star” ever since the concept was created; it almost seems innate
There were certain social changes that occurred, which allowed for the emergence of the star and the subsequent fascination displayed by the public
Urbanization and creation of the city Catalyst that fuelled the birth of the “Star”
Post civil-war period where immigrants and rural Americans flocked to urban centres with a common goal: employment
During this time, farming equipment was growing more and more mechanized, meaning that less labour was required to turn out produce
The manufacturing industry began to flourish with factories, plants and mills being created within the cities
This also allowed for surrounding businesses to grow in size and complexity resulting in even more employment opportunities
Eventually the US transformed from a small farming nation into a nation of urbanized wage earners
People started to have more wealth and their disposal and more time on their hands
Entrepreneurs started profiting from the extra time city dwellers could spend on leisure, and different spectrums of entertainment started to arise:
Saloons, theatre, vaudeville shows, moving pictures, circuses, exhibits, museums, amusements parks, horse races
Baseball as a spectator sport also grew baseball to be a key player in the evolution of the “star”
As people were moving awat from farms and small villages to towns and citites, they were experiencing radicals shifts between social existences.
Comparison: Farm vs. City.
Although farming villages were low in human density, there was a stronger social bond between the residences.
The rigid structure of these towns brought personal definition
There were certain practices and customs native to a village
Religious and community pressure had lent sure guidelines to beliefs and behaviour
Everybody knew, and knew of, everybody; close-knit bond with family and community
Family and ancestors rooted within community, your identity was engrained in the village where you lived
Personal relationship with general store owner, a level of trust and acceptance
In cities, there was a higher density, but there was a greater extent of impersonality
As people moved into cities, they were stripped of their supporting prescriptions and left to their own devices
Dependent on oneself, as opposed to the unified community
The abiding question for them, was about self-definition
City folk are alone in ways more profound that country folk had ever experienced
Had to determine their own economic path, instead of following in the footsteps of their father, or taking on a family business
Even personal lives were in their own hands can’t just marry the neighbouring farmers’ daughter
There wasn’t a set of standards and customs that was prevalent in the country
The comfort of the country and rural villages, was replaced with peril and anxiety of the new cities and towns
Individuals left behind a highly prescriptive protestant ideology of rural America, leaving a sturdy framework, and plunged into the depths of the anomie and psychic discomfort
Naturally, people started to capitalize on this widespread fear and depression
Created a number of self-help manuals to help and find and strengthen one’s “Character”
A dummy’s guide to Character?
But as people grew tired of these books, they started marketing ones how to develop your “Personality”
Emphasize personal charm in order to endure and find purpose, the individual needed to develop his personality and get others to like him
However, personality was never an issue until sense of identity was called into question in rural areas, they weren’t having this problem
As people were leaving old modes of existence and pouring into new ones, they needed models of personality (aka models of worldly, successful attractive people with definitive self-identity and free of anxiety)
It wasn’t as easy as looking up to your mother/father or a role model within a rural community any more. Because in the city, those were all irrelevant
Individuals found “refuge” in models on stage, on screen, and playing baseball.
Stars exude the perfected confident behaviour that unanchored city dwellers coveted
They showed us how to be whole and resolved people 00> the ideal male and female
Performers offered various models of the well-integrated self, at a time of excruciated need, and when other wll0wrought exemplars were not forthcoming. And in a most revealing choice of words, they were call “personalities”
Chaplin/Pickford/Fairbanks
Slight stature that emphasized their youthfulness important empathetic feature of an audience of a new culture
but brimming with a compacted, radiant energy
Moved with pose and grace, suggesting uncorrupted souls
Demonstrated a tenacity; could overcome evil, authority, and tedium; could venture forward as happy individuals
Comedy and charm, always beating the opposition, the pursued love
Ended up in exalting unions, and for a moment the spectators could experience exaltation too.
-technology of the cinema permitted audiences to concentrate on faces of performers
-the close-up, excludes everything but the actor
-eradicated distance between viewer and actor
-improvement over real life theatre
-could study every feature of face, every emotion
-D.W. Griffith
-was scoffed at while developing the close-up
-it was believed patrons wanted to see entire performance, from top to bottom
-became clear that a camera shot tightly framed around the face had majestic properties, and captured the imagination
-why the close up?
-via the face that privacy is broached and humans enter into contact with each other
-words count for less than 10%
-real messages carried in tone of voice (38%) and in facial expressions (55%)
-the close up empowers primal language and exempts irrelevant cues
-avenue for the soul
-everything else in cinema, including: plots, dialogue, direction, cinematography, supporting characters, existed to highlight these personalities
-advent of sound reproduction in the 1920’s
-audiences now knew performers not only for face but voice as well
-dilemma: sound movies cost over twice as much!
-brought new breed of movie executive, who saw “star” potential as only way of bringing in revenue
-impact of the Great Depression
-unemployment rises to 1/3 of workforce…
-in the home, a new competing medium was arising… RADIO
-with exception of visuals, radio provided everything the movies had, but for free
-since stars were what the movie industry was selling, they were carefully selected and cultivated
-development of stars was systemized
-each studio would present a crop of new aspirants in B movies
-weeding out of the unsuccessful
-seven year contracts given to proven actors
-to the stars, this system was seen as positive and negative
-typecasting
-standardizing of their image brought them steady work, longer careers,
-under silent film, averages career was 3-5 years, under new star system it could be 6 to 8 times longer
-not until after Depression and WWII that the high of 90 million tickets sold would again be reached
-just because ticket sales were low, fans still vibrant:
-even though attendance dropped, commitment to stars did not
-estimated that in 1930’s, over 30 million letters of fan mail had been sent each year
-in 1934, there were 535 recognized fan clubs, combined membership of 750,000
Chapter 26 - Advertising and the Idea of Mass Society
The Incorporation of the Barnumesque: Toward an Ideology of Mass Society”
1895 – Charles Austin Bates:
“The magazine reader is a leisurely person… no need to yell at him with black type.”
1910 – James Collins:
“Frenetic noonday crowd”
After 1900, advertisers became more focused on reaching people on the move
Average worker’s daily routine was mundane and boring
Required frequent doses of novelty.
Planned Obsolescence
Installment Buying
Advertisers began to believe that the mass audience is becoming more childlike.
“Mental images have full sway, and we see how largely the impulses they arouse govern one’s actions” (1910 – Trade Press writer)
This led agencies to conduct market research on their target audiences.
Correlating demographic data with their brand preferences and testing reactions to different advertisements.
Realized that no matter how much research they did, they still couldn’t figure out what would resonate with the wants of the consumer.
Advertisers were stuck in this carnival world, using tricks and persuasive techniques in order to sell their products.
Ex. A car’s “atmosphere”
However, most advertisers wouldn’t admit to having a connection with PT Barnum
He was criticized for “playing on the streak of bizarre appetite for the abnormal, the admiration for trickery and the fascination of the horrible” Printer’s Ink
However, they acknowledge that he had progressed in ethics and taste.
However, advertising in the early 20th century was not always reassuring.
It provided discomfort of the producer towards the advertisers, as well as glorifying materialism within consumer culture.
Advertising was not about the things themselves, but about the representation of wishes for things.
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