Fame Critic is a term that signifies an academic and media professional offering cultural treatment of fame. It refers to one who engages in an intellectual and aesthetic practice of critically recognizing and understanding public figures, fans, and identification in celebrity culture.
The Fame Critic emerged out of Canadian academic and filmmaker Dr Nandy’s award-winning Doctoral research on fame. Valued at over $120,000, the funded research on fame began after she visited Australia in summer 2006. With the support of distinguished faculty members Professor Matthew Allen, Dr Helen Merrick, Professor Jon Stratton, Dr Michele Willson, and Dr John Fielder, her research developed with an aim to unfold meanings and practices of fame, transnational media relations, and extend it to innovative understandings of worldwide celebrities and fans in their particular social and cultural settings.
For a Fame Critic, criticism does not mean criticizing a celebrity’s work. Rather, the critic strategically positions public personalities within varied yet specific contexts of fame. In the process, the critic unlocks artistic, cultural, and economic assets of talent that are often overlooked in favour of standard forms of representation in media productions. As well, a Celebrity Cultural Critic recognizes the critical role of fandom in understanding and contributing to the overall art in fame-based practices.
Fame Criticism is thereby a form of arts criticism that is distinct from criticism of stars / celebrities in tabloid journalism.
A Fame Critic instead:
- Contributes an added intellectual and aesthetic value to merit-based fame, talent, and independent art beyond tabloid journalism.
- Advances and promotes existing brand image of public personalities at an international, national, and local level of popular culture.
- Adopts elegant styles specific to public personalities while broadening their scope.
- Supports the cultural products of all artists. These products include but not limited to cinema, television programs, theatrical plays, music, photographs, and books.
- Restores the original talent with which a particular stardom, celebrity, and independent art emerged in the entertainment industry.
- Helps to protect rights and quality of celebrities, independent artistes, and fans.
- Recognizes the distinctive power of celebrity endorsement and advocacy of social, cultural, political issues.
- Addresses equity issues and public participation in stardom, celebrity culture, and all forms of arts.
Are you a Fame Critic?
Join and find out what’s intellectually and aesthetically stimulating yet elegant at CMCS.