It's good to see you all on here. I'd like to add to the discussion by bringing up a blog that a friend introduced me to about a year ago when I was in the initial stages of planning this class.
Anne Petersen is working on her doctorate in the RTF (Radio, Television, and Film) department here at UT. She writes this blog, "Celebrity Gossip, Academic Style":
http://annehelenpetersen.wordpress.com/
Anne presents a lot of perceptive observations about celebrity culture in terms of how it makes meaning for mass audiences and why it's something that we should take seriously. She offers a lot of astute commentary about how fame and image construction work and how we, as readers/viewers/consumers, contribute to that process. Although she's not using the classical rhetoric terms that we do, I think that there are many ways in which her project overlaps with ours. I think her writing also provides a solid model for those of you who are thinking about how to strengthen your analytical and close reading skills.
If you follow the link, check out her posts discussing the Heidi Montag mess and the Sandra Bullock circus. Note that she speculates on how both women do/do not participate in the arguments made about them. I also enjoyed her post dealing with Bruce Springsteen's cultural appeal, but maybe that's more to do with my being a fan of "The Boss."
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