The story of my life

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Communications - Mass Media, grade: 1,0, University of Oslo (University of Oslo, Institutt for medier og kommunikasjon), course: MEVIT 4130 - Mediatized Stories: Self-representations in digital storytelling , language: English, abstract: Nowadays almost every celebrity has his own homepage containing more or less information about him as a private person. Once being established in the media, a webpage can reinforce oneself's popularity among the online community. Surely can there be assumed that this digital representation of themselves is located somewhere between PR and privacy. Due to celebrities' extraordinary status in society, it may be an interesting question in what way they still can be considered as a private person. As Tolson holds, there is 'a quest for an authentic mediated identity today' (Tolson 2001: 456) what, referred to celebrities, could be realised through effective external communication in form of web pages. In this regard, this term paper will aim to figure out to which extent these kinds of digital self-representations can be considered as 'authentic' towards illustrating something really personal or private. What kind of identity(-construction) can there be seen behind the mask of being someone famous and to what extent can one call the presented material about the self 'authentic'? Furthermore, what are the consequences for celebrities regarding either presenting themselves too much as business people or private persons?