fame of the star. This affirms not only the privacy of the celebrity, but also
the boundary division between media and ordinary.
This division traps the star as much as the fan, shrinking the field of
legitimate relationships to celebrity circles as their personality is so
overdetermined by the image. As such, the celebrity must not only act on
the set, but also act out a role as an heroic individual among other heroes.
They are the last flâneurs, bathing themselves in the crowd.
Moreover, media influence the behaviour of non-celebrities who
might appear in it. Individuals modify their behaviour on TV in terms of
narratives of expectation.^31 This is as binding on the celebrity as it might
be on a viewer. Paradoxically, the over-exposure of a celebrity via the
image can become suffocating to the point that they feel they do not get
any attention outside of playing the glamorous roles that are expected of
them. On occasions this may result in being attracted to scandal for its
own sake, or, in some recent cases, petty shoplifting – Jennifer Capriati
and Winona Ryder.
Ultimately, the position of the celebrity can be quite fatalistic, their
immersion in their own image leaving little room for escape, an index of
which is the high rate of suicide among celebrities. Such suicide may also
affect the behaviour of fans, who may become deeply melancholic or even
commit suicide themselves insofar as they are enveloped by the pathos of
their object-fixation.^32 A study by Wasserman (1984) showed that reported
celebrity deaths by suicide are more likely to be imitated than are non-
celebrity suicides. Alternatively, obsessive object relations with celebrities
may result in some order of resentment towards the inequality of the cul-
ture industry. Celebrities hire security guards for their protection, and
some of those who want to walk the streets and be like everyone else
might end up paying the price, as John Lennon did.^33Rituals of audience community – metonymous identification
Whilst the celebrity might swing between the heroic and the melancholic,
audiences have recourse to several forms of narrative through which
to ‘live’ their relationship to broadcast culture. After all, they do have
choice over the programming and genres of media events in which they
participate.
In the following discussion, focusing on television audiences, I will
describe some of these genres in terms of the way they bring about varia-
tions of audience community, but also some ways in which these medium-
communities become consummated through behaviour on the Internet. In
nearly all of the formats and genres I examine, the main ritual being
enacted by television audiences is to identify with what is happening in a
television studio metonymously. That is, it is as though what happens in
the studio is somehow able to substitute for a larger reality beyond the
screen. A field of recognition is established by which the activity in the214 COMMUNICATION THEORYHolmes-06.qxd 2/15/2005 1:03 PM Page 214