Richard Dyer (born 1945) is an English academic currently holding a professorship in the Department of Film Studies at Kings College. Specializing in cinema (particularly Italian cinema), queer theory, and the relationship between entertainment and representations of race, sexuality, and gender.
His theory is the idea that icons and celebrities are manufactured by institutions for financial gain. He thinks the stars are constructed to represent 'real people' experiencing real emotions. He believes that the stars are made by the music industry to serve a purpose which is to make money out of the audience. They are able to do this because the audience responds to elements of the star's personality by buying records and becoming fans.
Dyer developed the idea that the viewers perception of a film is heavily influenced by the perception of its stars, and that publicity materials and reviews determine the way the audiences experience a media text.
His theory splits into three sections:
1. Audiences and Institutions/Industry
2. Stars as constructions
3. Hegemony
4. Character and Personalty
Stars as constructions:
- They are artificial images even if they are being presented as 'real people'.
- This helps them create a unique selling point.
Their representation may be image associated like Michael Jackson's glove
Pop stars image is more consistent over a period of time than a film stars image is.
This is because it is not dependent on the input of others and film stars play different roles whereas pop stars are the same person.
A good example to prove this is Jim Carey. In 'Ace Ventura' he is very funny and is not being very serious whereas is 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'.
Audience and Industry/Institutions:
Stars are manufactured by the music industry to serve a purpose- to make money out of the audience, who respond to various elements of a stars persona by buying their music and becoming fans of them.
They become a commodity- they are consumable.
Cheryl Cole and Lady Gaga are good examples as they have both been very popular and have had a big influence on their fans.
Hegemony:
Stars represent shared cultural values ad attitudes to promote a certain ideology and this is also what makes them a star by having such a powerful influence on their audience. It makes the audience want to mimic the stars qualities and conform to their ideologies and promote their attitudes. But this could also be a negative impact as some stars are often heavy drinkers and drug abusers. For example in the 60s and 70s there was an increase of illegal sales of Cannabis due to The Beatles being open about using it.
Ideology and Culture:
Stars represent shared cultural values and attitudes that promote certain ideology about themselves as an artist and what they want an audience to see what they believe in. By having dominant desirable ideologies it allows the audience to see their star qualities and make them more desirable.
- Beyonce puts pictures of her family on twitter to make herself more desirable because that is what people strive to have/achieve.
Charity work is a good example of something a star can do to make them more relatable but they are still a construct.
Character and Personality:
Stars provide us with ideas of what people are supposed to be like and because of this audiences feel like they need to conform to these constructions.
As an audience, we would rather see pictures of stars in their makeup rather than without it as this is what is desired and is shown in the media.
Paradox of the star:
There are two paradoxes and a star is both ('ordinary' and 'extraordinary')
The star needs to be like us to relate to the audience but also to offer something that we don't have in order to deem them special enough to be stars. If they were 'normal' they wouldn't be desired.
Signs that audiences recognise:
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