From The Idol Symbol Structure Of Symbol To Consumption

The development of the internet provides an open platform to the “grassroots”,they now have more opportunity to be a shining star in the virtual world. Recently,more and more internet stars come into our audiences’ sight, and such phenomenonhas been a unique cultural spectacle. Some become famous just by chance, while theothers are in a promotional stunt. Some just express themselves, while the others aremanipulated by the media or interest group. Since the internet stars come into oursight in1998, the images of them have gradually changed. Their odd behavior and thetransformation from popularity to kitsch deserve our deep thinking.This thesis is an attempt to probe into the changes of internet stars’ images fromthe perspective of semiotic theories. The phenomenon is placed in the macroscopicbackground for its causes, such as the economic, the cultural elements. As a start, thisthesis will hackle the famous affairs, the later development of internet stars year byyear, which indicates the fact that the stars are no longer idols for us, instead, they aretransformed into symbols of consumption, symbols mechanically replicated and aredestined to be consumed.Followed by the analysis of the phenomenon, the main reasons behind arecarried out, namely the media and audiences affected by consumerism. Theprevalence of consumerism and the chase for economic interest in media industry givea chance for the vulgarization of internet stars. This change actually satisfiesaudiences’ demands for entertainment. The media group together with the audiencesexpands the coverage of unhealthy images and vulgar performance.In the end parts, how to view this phenomenon is proposed. With a dialecticalpoint of view in mind, the author has emphasized the positive points as well as thenegative impact. More and more internet stars resort to pictures or videos to expressthemselves, which will prevent, or at least discourage quiet and intensive thinking.People will gradually give up thinking in order to pursue visual enjoyment, which willlead to the lack of values. We should carefully consider this phenomenon and try toavoid those negative effects brought by the malicious speculation. Internet medium should guide audiences in a proper way, and help improve audiences’ media literacy.These will be beneficial to create a healthy and diversified cultural environment.