Visibility 1

This book analyzes in detail the mechanisms of visibility, not reducible to specific capital and other capital which is built by the multiplication and dissemination of images and media appearances. This capital can accumulate, getting lost, earn interest, will age or fall, it can also be transmitted, convert and it is measured by the number of individuals able to associate the name and face of the recognized person . The analysis of production mechanisms that visibility is very carefully done in this work, otherwise very well written. Landslides old forms of Fame to new forms of mediated visibility are finely analyzed. So when the old Queen of England yielded to popular pressure to commemorate the death of Diana divorced.
At the critical apparatus, it has many references from the United States, which aerates the French pleasantly analyzes or Paris, which was so often right. At the end of the book, a critical analysis is made in order of sociological and political denunciations are usually made of the media, the "society of the spectacle" and showbiz. For cons, the author refuses to make any criticism of the actors themselves, faithful in this to the "value neutrality" Weber.
Two questions remain after reading the big book:
1. Why almost no analysis is made of contemporary art, which, however, the main representatives are stronger dressed strategists to make themselves visible? This is however is an area in which the author is a specialist. But maybe she has reserved that to the many books she has devoted to the subject and she did not want to talk about it here.
2. More important, why has no-one analysis of the transformations of scientific activity visibility plan? This is a major development in recent decades, the fact that some scientists seek and acquire a visibility which is added to their scientific competence, or partially replaces her, even if she does not acquire the dimensions seen with the "people". Yet it is becoming a growing ingredient of their career, their quest for research funding and even their credibility among peers. Thus one can cite the example of the dazzling career of geophysicist Michael Mann after the publication of its temperature curve "hockey stick" (1998), just after completing his doctoral thesis, despite the devastating criticisms of statisticians as to the accuracy and relevance of its methods of calculation. Is that his work came into resonance with the zeitgeist as it was disseminated and multiplied by the media, "green" activists and part of the political class. Here, the example shows that relativize the idea that it is the face of the person that is associated with the visibility (few people would recognize Mann on a photo), but we must consider all "evocations "by the media. Clearly, the Mann curve has more visibility than his face.