Celebrity/Stardom in Virtual Worlds Media Cultures 1 Week 9, 15 September 2009 Tracey Meziane Benson

You can’t keep a dead man down Film Stardom and Celebrity Slide credit: Catherine Summerhayes

A Marketing Device: your body is your business Slide credit: Catherine Summerhayes

Celebrity in real and online contexts – controlling the image Slide credit: Tracey Meziane In many cases, celebrities do not have control of how their image is used. For example, images of ‘stars without makeup’ is a regular feature in many women’s magazines. In the online environment there is even less capacity for stars to control their image. The images on the right have titles with the words ‘Paris Hilton’ but none of the clips in this screen dump have anything to do with Paris Hilton. Her name is used in the title to attract viewers as it is a popular search term.

Artists who become online ‘stars’ John Halcyon Styn has been exploring the idea of online celebrity for years. He has a number of online personas and he plays with ideas relating to identity and intimacy. His web site is at: www.cockybastard.com Slide credit: Tracey Meziane

15 minutes of fame Andy Warhol made this statement in the 1960s: “ In the future everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes.” Do you think this is true? You Tube certainly would have you believe that being famous is a ‘real’ possibility. Slide credit: Tracey Meziane