Fame Games: The Production of Celebrity in Australia

by Graeme Turner, Frances Bonner, P. David Marshall

Fame Games uncovers the manufacturing process that is behind the array of personalities we see in Australian media. It investigates the changed public sphere and the altered mediascape that publicity and public relations have generated around the circulation of celebrities connected to the various cultural commodities produced by the entertainment industries. Key figures from the emergent Australian celebrity industry--from managers and agents to publicists, promoters and mass market magazine editors--were interviewed to provide a nuanced reading of how personalities are developed and are essential elements of how news and entertainment is conveyed to us.

210 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2000

About the author

Graeme Turner is an Australian professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland, Federation Fellow, Past President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, Director of the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, and Convenor of the ARC Cultural Research Network.

He is one of the key figures in the development of cultural and media studies in Australia. His work is used in many disciplines: cultural and media studies, communications, history, literary studies, and film and television studies. Turner's research interests include Australian film and media, issues in Australian Nationalism, popular culture, celebrity, and talkback radio. His current project investigates the role of television in a post-broadcast era increasingly dominated by new media formats such as the Internet.