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One re-enchanted evening the Academy Awards as a mediated ritual within celebrity culture
- Source: Northern Lights: Film & Media Studies Yearbook, Volume 6, Issue 1, Jun 2008, p. 127 - 142
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- 01 Jun 2008
Abstract
This is a case study of the Oscars ceremony 2007, analysing how the awards show works as a mediated ritual within celebrity culture. In the analysis, I characterize the Oscars as an example of a live media event, and then I analyse how it is connected to celebrity culture and, eventually, I discuss whether it can be said to have religious affinities and perhaps even be an example of a replacement strategy for the decline in organized religion. In my analysis I combine sociological analysis of the media event genre as presented by Dayan & Katz, as well as Couldry, with cultural analysis of celebrity culture and stars as argued by Rojek, Turner, Morin and Dyer. On the basis of this analysis, I want to argue that the Academy Awards ceremony can be seen as a re-enchanted evening on several levels: as a live media event, a mediated ritual and as presenting glamorous stars as objects of identification.