week 7: blogging task

In the reading this week, Marshall (2010) uses the metaphor of the ‘specular mirror’ – such as a two-way mirror, or a projection on to a screen – to describe the production, circulation and interaction of images and texts within our socially managed online worlds. The Specular Economy is then one way to explain and to explore how we are becoming aware of the mediated performances of our public selves.

Marshall (2010) describes the construction of online ‘persona’, as an expansion of the celebrity model in the economies of cultural industries. He examines changes to the concept and practices of celebrity and observes that the divisions between the public and the private are not as clear as they once were. He argues that celebrities see themselves through the eyes of others and that celebrities are required to present themselves as if being watched, even if they are not. The specular world of the celebrity is very close to the everyday mode of public performance of the self through social media use.

Within the contemporary culture the development of celebrity has particularly been powerful and universal. The value in what we see is organised and is made evident through its pervasion of the creation of news. Similarly, celebrity has been well documented in terms of its capacity to shape our entertainment: stardom is at least one of the cultural economies in which our stories and fictions are selected or read and recreated in popular culture. The development of persona studies involves the research on the celebrity. It is a subset of a wider study of how the self and public intersect and produce versions and identities that in some way continue to support the wider demands of our work economies.

Reference list

Marshal, P.D 2010, ‘The Specular Economy’, Society, vol. 47, no. 6, pp. 498-502

Marshall, P.D. 2013 , Persona Studies: mapping the proliferation of the public self, Journalism, June 4. online edition.

Persona studies: Mapping the proliferation of the public self . 2013. Persona studies: Mapping the proliferation of the public self . [ONLINE] Available at: http://jou.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/05/28/1464884913488720. [Accessed 10 October 2013].