For readers interested in the ways that celebrities can be used to add value to products, brands or campaigns this book will be an interesting read. Readers from a more fan studies background, however, should bear in mind the author’s roots in psychology while reading, writes Bethan Jones

Jones, Bethan

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12/02/2015Book Review: Celebrity Capital: Assessing the Value ofFame by Barrie Gunterblogs.lse.ac.uk /lsereviewofbooks/2015/02/12/book-review-celebrity-capital-assessing-the-value-of-fame-by-barrie-gunter/For readers interested in the ways that celebrities can be used to add value to products, brands orcampaigns this book will be an interesting read. Readers from a more fan studies background, however, shouldbear in mind the author’s roots in psychology while reading, writes Bethan Jones.Celebrity Capital: Assessing the Value of Fame. Barrie Gunter.Bloomsbury. 2014.Find this book: Celebrity is everywhere. On television, on the cover of magazines, onsocial networking sites – the images and actions of the famous andinfamous are available at the click of a button. The ubiquity of celebritycomes as no surprise in popular culture, but academic study of the sameelicits raised eyebrows. UK newspaper The Telegraph ran an articleentitled “Celebrity studies? Katy Perry can’t teach our teenagers anythingabout politics” which argued that the idea that celebrities can teach usanything about politics or morality is “bizarre if not downright depressing”,while a Guardian article suggested that using celebrities in degree levelcourses is “a symptom of a competitive commercialised educationmarket”. These articles, however, focus on the contemporaryunderstanding of celebrity – what Barrie Gunter categorises as fame(Beyoncé, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West) rather than the historicalunderstanding of the word (p.6). Commenters to the Guardian article notedthis division, pointing out that Jane Austen and Shakespeare could both beconsidered celebrities, but contemporary understanding of celebrity andfame are often interchangeable, as Gunter argues in Celebrity Capital.Given the disconnect between the predominance of celebrity in the media and media attitudes to academic analysis,Celebrity Capital is a timely study on the nature of fame and the different values that fame holds. The book is dividedinto seven chapters, each – with the exception of the first, which examines what the author means by celebritycapital – analysing different forms of capital that celebrities hold.Gunter moves somewhat away from Pierre Bourdieu’s conception of capital in this book, writing that “celebrities canhave real and significant monetary value for others who use these iconic figures to promote their interests. Thecapability of celebrities to generate financial returns therefore in effect bestows upon them a ‘capital’ value in realmonetary terms. As we will see, however, ‘capital’ as an indicator of value can be measured in many other ways”(p.3). Gunter thus theorises capital in terms of the value that celebrities have to those who wish to use them. This isin contrast to Bourdieu who defined capital as a “set of actually usable resources and powers – economic capital,cultural capital and also social capital” (1984, p. 114) and who used the concept of cultural capital to explain non-monetary gains to the people in possession of that cultural capital. In Gunter’s understanding, then, celebrities havepsychological capital because they can be used to manipulate audiences into connecting with them on an emotionalor psychological level.  In a Bourdieusian sense, however, celebrities might be in possession of psychological capitalbecause they are wealthy enough to employ therapists to help them deal with psychological trauma.1/3Photos from Kim Kardashian West’s Instagram feed.Bourdieu used the metaphor of culture as an economy in which people invest and accumulate capital, and havingused this notion of capital in a fan studies framework, adjusting my understanding to the more economic use of theterm in Celebrity Capital took some time. Gunter’s examination of the value which celebrities have in various arenasremains an interesting one, however, as it focuses on both the positive and negative aspects of celebrity and howpublic perception affects a celebrity’s value. Gunter examines the psychological, consumer, corporate, political andhealth capital of celebrities, dedicating a chapter to each as well as a final one to the evolving capital of celebrity.Discussing the health capital of celebrity, for example, Gunter asks “In terms of outcomes, however, how muchinfluence can a celebrity […] have on enhancing public awareness or raising funds?” (p.171). He analyses the use ofcelebrities in supporting health-related behavioural change campaigns, as well as the ways in which the negativeactions of celebrities (e.g. binge drinking) contribute to positive behaviour change by the public (e.g. cutting back onalcohol).The value of celebrity in terms of public perception is foregrounded throughout the book, with the amount of capital acelebrity possesses being directly related to their credibility amongst the public. It was this which caused me thebiggest problem with the book. Gunter notes that celebrities are often seen as role models whose actions andstatements can influence the public, and he reiterates the value that celebrities can add to a brand, campaign orproduct because of the relationship they have with the public. In discussing fans, however, Gunter creates a cleardivide between fans and the public: “specific celebrities have been held to stand for social value changes and theirfollowers or ‘fans’ identify with them and adopt favourite celebrities as role models for specific cultural changes”(p.vii). Fans can be obsessive, engage in pretend relationships with celebrities and undertake forms of celebrityworship to the detriment of their everyday lives. Many of the activities the Gunter describes, however, are familiar tofan studies scholars as a normal aspect of fannish behaviour. Travelling hundreds of miles to see a celebrity orwriting to a celebrity are increasingly common, particularly when social media allows celebrities to be more easilyaccessible. And these activities are not restricted to media or music fans: sports fans often travel thousands of milesto watch a favourite team play. Gunter, however, examines these behaviours as disorders and this is where, for meat least, fruitful discussions can be had about the ways in which fans are analysed and theorised in differentdisciplines.Gunter draws heavily on psychology in Celebrity Capital, and the ways in which fans are examined in the field ofpsychology is markedly different to how they are understood in media or cultural studies. Nathalie Claessens andHilde Van den Bulck, in The Ashgate Research Companion to Fan Cultures,  note that “In addition to fan studies,research on celebrity fandom has also been conducted within the domain of psychology. Despite the potentialbenefits of aggregating psychological studies with fan studies, to date the two bodies have not been sufficientlyintegrated” (p.65).2/3Celebrity Capital is, for me, an example of a failure to integrate two disciplines which could easily work together, tothe benefit of each. For readers interested in the ways that celebrities can be used to add value to products, brandsor campaigns this book will be an interesting read. Readers from a more fannish background, however, should bearin mind the author’s roots in psychology while reading.Bethan Jones is a PhD candidate in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies at AberystwythUniversity, where she is researching the relationship between anti-fandom, celebrity, gender and transformativeworks. She has been published in the journals Transformative Works and Culture, Participations, Sexualities,Intensities: The Journal of Cult Media and the Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance, as well as in editedcollections on gender, fan studies and new media. She is a board member of the Fan Studies Network and hasrecently co-edited a special issue of New Media & Society on crowdfunding with Lucy Bennett and Bertha Chin.Read more reviews by Bethan.Copyright 2013 LSE Review of Books3/3

Book review: celebrity capital: assessing the value of fame by Barrie Gunter

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