Monday, January 15, 2018

Core Response Week 1 - Joyce(Yae Jin) Chun

In Stars by Richard Dyer, we are introduced to differing arguments made by Francesco Alberoni and Barry King about various social structures that must be obtain for stardom to exist. Alberoni states that stars are a group of people who have power to interest the audience with their doings and ways of life but, in a limiting or even non-existing way. He also stats that stars have no access to real political power. Barry King, on the other hand, argues that stars do have major control over representing people in society and influencing the audience to what kind of society to become. He sees stars as being placed in a privileged position where they can define various social roles and types. This argument ties in with another question that is brought up: "Are stars a phenomenon of production (arising from what the maker of film provide) or of consumption (arising from what the audience for films demands)?"

Personally for me, when a film comes out, the first thing I look for in the trailer is what actor is featured in the film. Yes, the content of the film is important, however, when it comes to pure enjoyment, I tend to prioritize watching films that have my favorite celebrities in it. "Fandom" would be the term to describe this phenomenon, where audiences are looking for a recognizable face in the film they are watching to have some sort of connection to the film. Fans stay loyal to their favorite stars by supporting a film one star may be starring in as well. With this being said, it becomes evident that stars are a phenomenon of consumption and not from production. "[...] it has been argued that a more determining force in the creation of stars is the audience - that is, the consumers - rather than the producers of media texts,". Without the audience constantly wanting to consume material these actors are in, the star phenomenon would die out, leaving us with no existent star.

This, then, brings us back to the argument between Alberoni and King. In "All About Eve", we observe Eve's obsession with her role model, Margo. Because Margo is the "star" to Eve, Eve observes Margo and tries to act, talk, and perform exactly like how Margo does, proving what King said about stars having control over representing people in society and influencing them true. This is evident even today with our stars, especially with social media, where the audience observes how a star is living and tries to live similarly. "[...] it is also significant that, in the discussion of 'subversive' star images in the next part, stars embodying adolescent, female and gay images play a crucial role,". The amount of influence a star has on the audience is tremendous that even with the roles they portray in a film, the audience can easily be influenced by. With stars being produced from the audience and their consumption, the phenomenon of stars is also produced, which then results in the star's ability to use their position to define what society's roles should be and represent.

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  3. I really enjoyed your topic! This dynamic relationship between who or what determines fame is one that questions cause and effect. It's interesting to see that you first look at who is featured in a film. For me, I feel as though stars have the ability to give more credibility to a movie, but are not my top factor. I would probably weigh my peers perspective on the movie as more influential, personally.
    I also see this mannerism of mine present in other parts of my life. More specifically, in how I have high trust in Amazon for its reviews and what my favorite influencers have to say.

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