Marketing heroes
Date: 2015-10-07; view: 377.
The switch from hero to celebrity was analysed 35 years ago by Daniel Boorstin. In The Image: What Happened to the American Dream, he defined the celebrity as "a person who is well-known for his well-knownness". Such people have replaced heroes: "the hero was distinguished by his achievement; the celebrity by his image or trademark... The hero was a big man; the celebrity is a big name."
The rise of the celebrity, Mr Boorstin argued, reflects the increase in the supply of and demand for news that began with 19th-century technical innovations, but gathered pace with the coming of radio and the cinema. For example, the rotary press, which could print both sides of a continuous sheet of newsprint, vastly increased the supply and cut the price of newspapers. The development of photography (the roll film appeared in 1884) allowed people to see, as well as read about, events that occurred far away.
The expansion of newspaper increased the demand for celebrities (how else to attract readers and fill all that blank space?). Radio, the cinema and television also helped to increase the supply. Not only did they allow people to hear and see public figures as never before. More important, they created a class of people who could profit directly from becoming celebrities.
Mr Boorstin looked at profiles of people in a sample of popular American magazines and newspapers. Between 1901 and 1914, 74% of the subjects came from politics, business and the professions. After 1922, well over half the people profiled came from entertainment. Over time, the proportion from the serious arts declined and from light entertainment and sports increased. Many of these people had as much interest in being written about as newspapers had in using them to fill their pages. "Formerly, a public man needed a private secretary for a barrier between himself and the public," observed Mr Boorstin. "Nowadays he has a press secretary, to keep him properly in the public eye."
The economic relationship between celebrities and the media helped to turn fame into a sellable commodity. The earliest stage was the development of the telegraph, which led to the creation of the Associated Press in 1848. That, in turn, transformed news into a product that could be wholesaled to newspapers, as well as retailed in print. Once companies began to offer wired photographs, starting with the New York Times in 1919, news pictures became sellable commodities too.
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