ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter we presented a model for understanding business celebrities that emphasizes the crowded nature of the celebrification process, the central roles played by the many actors and intermediaries who populate the celebrity industries, and the equally crucial contributions of media audiences to the manner in which business celebrities are produced, consumed, and understood.We stressed that constant interaction among these different players shapes the nature of the celebrities they all help produce. As a result, business celebrities are not merely exemplary individuals.They are also sites of debate and even conflict over what it means to be an individual in a society dominated by large corporations and other business institutions. But as we also pointed out, many of the intermediaries involved in the process of celebrification work hard to conceal or minimize their contributions in order to direct as much attention as possible towards the celebrities themselves.The irony of the business celebrity system is that it takes the efforts of so many people to reinforce the idea that certain gifted individuals dominate the world of business.
