ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that celebrities are an integral part of modern consumer capitalism, created and circulated by the interlocking media and publicity industries and regulated by legal and economic frameworks. It suggests that legal and economic regimes in capitalist economies function in part to regulate public interactions with celebrity in ways that are important in shaping and maintaining the terrain of their social, economic and symbolic power. Analysis of celebrity is concerned with understanding processes of production and consumption and how these intertwine within particular media contexts. Thus celebrity power as measured in terms of reputational capital will rise and fall, depending on promotional visibility, audience demand and social currency. Celebrity value depends upon a system of value but also a system of trade, and the main currency of media industries is audiences and rights over celebrity performances and images. The chapter examines the negotiated engagement between audiences and the press, Web, social networking sites and other media.
