Reality Celebrity: Branded Affect and the Emotion Economy
- 1 January 2015
- journal article
- Published by Duke University Press in Public Culture
- Vol. 27 (1), 109-135
- https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-2798367
Abstract
More than any other form of media, reality television has reignited interest in celebrity discourse because of the genre’s incorporation of ordinary people and the conflation of ordinariness with raw, real emotion. This article argues that reality TV is part of an emerging “emotion economy” that generates unique forms of celebrity by producing and circulating heightened emotional performances as “branded affect.” A key signifier of what reality TV is and is becoming, branded affect underscores the commodification of emotion in the contemporary media landscape and the changing nature and meaning of celebrity.Keywords
This publication has 22 references indexed in Scilit:
- To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on TwitterConvergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 2011
- Book Review: Vicki Mayer, Miranda J. Banks and John T. Caldwell (eds.), Production Studies: Cultural Studies of Media Industries. New York and London: Routledge, 2009Media, Culture & Society, 2011
- The ‘place’ of television in celebrity studiesCelebrity Studies, 2010
- Media Audiences: Television, Meaning and Emotion * Reality Television, Affect and Intimacy: Reality MattersScreen, 2010
- `Meat, Mask, Burden`Journal of Consumer Culture, 2008
- Making the Most out of 15 MinutesTelevision & New Media, 2008
- Celebrity culture and public connection: Bridge or chasm?International Journal of Cultural Studies, 2007
- The mass production of celebrityInternational Journal of Cultural Studies, 2006
- Television, history, and American culture: feminist critical essaysChoice Reviews Online, 2000
- Picture personalities: the emergence of the star system in AmericaChoice Reviews Online, 1991