MEDIA & SPECTACLE

Guy Debord
Guy Debord was a writer,
filmmaker, and founding
member of the groups
importantlySituationist
International (SI) in the
1960s.
These groups influenced the
French uprising in 1968,
particularly the student
movements.
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Decoding Debord
Debord uses very complex,
poetic and often confusing
language to make some
very crucial points that
have become increasingly
relevant today.
His ideas were very
influential on how media
scholars, critics and
activists think about
culture.
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Important Marxist Terms in Debord

use value
exchange value
commodity
commodity fetishism
spectacle (Debord)

Marx and some economic

basics.

Use-value is the
qualitative aspect
of value. It is, the
material uses to
which the object
can actually be put,
the human needs it
fulfills.

The use value of shoes

Something to protect
feet when walking

The quantitative
amount that an
object is worth in
exchange for other
objects constitutes
its exchangevalue.
E.G the price..

The exchange value of

shoes

50 !

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However, with expansion

of economy and
development of technology
interesting things
occur.
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Money has come to stand in as a universal

equivalent.
Here, exchange-value dominates use-value
and use-value becomes abstracted.
Not how good or well made and
functional the shoes are but
rather ..

Plus image..

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In other words, we think more in terms of what

things are worth or cost on the market,
than what they can do to fulfill our material
needs.

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From Craft to Commodity

Economic growth and technological reproduction
led to the large scale production of cultural goods.

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Labour & commodity

The connection to the
actual hands of human
laborers as
craftspeople is severed
and we become
disconnected from the
production process of
the goods we use.

Pottery is a major export of Sri Lanka.

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Alienation
Basically we live in a world where the
human basis of the goods and services
we buy are not recognised.
We lose contact with each other and
indeed may treat each other as things

In a capitalist society, the

real producers of
commodities remain largely
invisible.
We only approach their
products "through the
relations which the act of
exchange establishes
between the products"

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Debord writes:

We recognize our old enemy, the

commodity, who knows so well how to
seem at first glance something trivial
and obvious, while on the contrary it is
so complex and so full of metaphysical
subtleties.

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 Commodities can seem simple because their

function is not necessarily complicated.

We store things in a pot, we drink from a glass,

we wear a pair of jeans, we use a computer.
Yet these goods are actually complex. When we
think about the layers of meanings, significance
and values they are attributed.

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This occurs primarily through advertising and

branding. When goods take meanings that go
far beyond their use, we can say they are
fetishized.

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Commodity Fetishism
Fetishism in anthropology refers to the belief
that godly powers can inhere in inanimate
things
Commodity fetishism is the magical quality
of the commodity

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http://www.cla.purdue.edu/English/theory/marxism/modules/marxfetishism.html

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Society of the Spectacle

When commodities are everywhere and are
everywhere full of a myriad of meanings
exceeding their use, when workers are
alienated from their labor and leisure time
is spent consuming goods, when we can
no longer discern the material world from
the world of prime time news media,
fashion magazines, game shows and the
World Cup finalswe are amidst what
Debord calls, The Society of the
Spectacle.
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(42)
The spectacle is
the moment when
the commodity has
attained the total
occupation of
social life.
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Stars, Celebrity, Spectacle.

A Brief outline and introduction.

Surrounded by images of celebrity.

There Everywhere.

In 2003 Beckham received 60,000,000 from

advertising.
30,000,000 of this came from a fee paid by a
football shirt manufacturer.

Eric Cantona famously accused Beckham of

caring more about merchandising than the team.
2007 paid
70,000,000 for two
adverts in USA

Beyond these major celebrities are a host

of minor ones.

In one sense there have always been celebrities.

Some of the first
celebrities were
winners in the
ancient Greek
Olympic Games
over 1500 years
ago.

Won the right to life long free food , hymns of praise would be
sung in there honour

The Roman Gladiator

The Rock Star of the Roman Empire
Spartacus.109 bc - 71 bc

However its really with the 18th century that modern

celebrity begins.
That is modern media celebrity.

E.g. Joshua Reynolds

Lord Byron

At this stage celebrities are notable people who, through their

actions, get reported in the press.

This changes with the rise of the film, and in

particular the Hollywood machine.
Associated with rise of Hollywood studio
system

and the star

From the 1920s & 30s onwards..

Stars where protected by studios.

Do anything provided they did what film companies wanted.

Jean Harlow
and James
Cagney
in Public
Enemy No 1
(1931)

Sex photos when

she was 17.
Abortion after an after
with other film stars.

Drink and drug use.

Died aged 26 in
1937

Yet, unlike today, these scandals never really effected the stars
careers.
Not really until late 1950s and the scandal surrounding
Lana Turners private life.

Sex, drugs, the

mafia and a dead
body at home.
Career not totally destroyed
but became a secondary TV
star.

Perhaps reflect decline of

Hollywood studio system

However the nature of celebrity has become more democratic

What does this mean?

"In the future, everyone will be

world-famous for 15 minutes."

Rise of new celebrity

Page 3

Chat show

These are celebrities who have become big in

areas that previously didnt

Football

It also refers to the rise of the minor / everyday celebrity.

E.g. Big Brother housemates

Celebrities can be looked at from two

(overlapping) angles
Audience Perspective.

Stars as a spectacle.
Entertainment value.

Representing peoples
dreams and desires.

Industry Perspective.

Culture industry that

seeks to maximise
profit.
Stars as resources to
help them make
money.

Modern age 18th century to 1980s Modernity.

Age of large scale heavy industrial production. Production lines

1980s onwards.
So called Postmodernity.
Better called late capitalism
Rise of new technologies.

Decline in older industries.

Increased dominance of culture industries. E.g. Entertainment
Shift from industrial production to production for lifestyles.

Stars are media constructions

A star is an image not a real
person that is constructed
(as any other aspect of fiction is)
out of a range of materials
(eg advertising, magazines etc as
well as films [music]).

Industry and Audience

Stars are manufactured to make money
out of audiences
Audiences respond to various elements of
a stars persona becoming fans
Stars represent projections of emotion by
the audience.
This can be either utopian or dystopian.

Stars as projections
The Under-Dog

Aspire to

Represent what
we dislike

Values and Utopia

In this sense stars, and how we fell about
them, are based on beliefs.
Normative beliefs about what is good and
bad in people. ideologies about right &
wrong etc..

They represent utopias that we believe in

Why is this woman

frequently the subject of
dislike?

Is it because we feel that she is spoilt, tasteless, wastes money etc????

If so this is because we believe this things are wrong our ideological

beliefs.

She breaks what we understand as right and good our utopia, our
ideal

Industry and Audience

Media industry attempts market research
to match stars with those audience belief
systems that are most widely held.
Industry constructs them so that they
arethey can make monies for the industry.
Dyer. Stars are commodities produced and
consumed on the strength of their meanings

E.g. Music and the Youth

Market:
Ring the changes