| In the public eye since the age of 11, Britney Spears has cultivated a relationship with media that has evolved as her career has flourished. She used media to establish herself as an artist, and maintained a symbiotic relationship with MTV, promoting new albums and videos on a network that spoke directly to her core audience while allowing that network to reap the benefits of her much-hyped appearances. As her audience grew, so did her opportunities to exploit media coverage, and she built her career on scandalmaking performances and the explosion of press that followed them. But the media machine eventually surpassed all of Spears' attempts to control her own public image, and a monster industry of online gossip websites was spawned in part on unflattering photos of and stories about her. Spears had to find a way to once again establish herself an as artist capable of putting on a great show, and she turned once again to MTV to help her manufacture a comeback. Throughout every phase of her career, Spears has had to navigate the increasingly muddled waters of modern media, and though her methods have not always been successful, they nonetheless show that being a pop star in the 21st century is as much about effective image management as it is about climbing the Billboard charts. |
