Celebrity A History of Fame

"Today, celebrity culture is an inescapable part of our media landscape and our everyday lives. This was not always the case. Over the past century, media technologies have increasingly expanded the production and proliferation of fame. Celebrity explores this revolution and its often underestimated impact on American culture. using numerous precedent-setting examples spanning more than one hundred years of media history, Susan J. Douglas and Andrea McDonnell trace the dynamic relationship between celebrity and the technologies of mass communication that have shaped the nature of fame in the United States." -- back cover.