Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
MEDIA ASIA, cilt.0, sa.0, ss.1-28, 2026 (Scopus)
This article examines how media figures who have achieved
long-term visibility on Turkish television become stars through personas
that evolve within media representations beyond fictional
roles. To explain how this star status is sustained over time, the
study proposes a five-stage conceptual model titled the Stardom
Trajectory. The model draws on key theoretical approaches to stardom
and celebrity developed by Dyer, Gamson, Turner, Deller, and
Langer, and is further elaborated through television-specific
dynamics such as repetition, cross-platform circulation, parasocial
relations, and continuity-based personality construction. The study
employs a qualitative representational analysis grounded in Stuart
Hall’s theory of representation and adopts a multiple-case research
design focusing on three figures Huysuz Virjin, Mehmet Ali Erbil,
and Seda Sayan selected for their long-term presence in Turkish
television culture. The analysis examines their media representations,
persona transformations, and screen identities across different
television program formats within the framework of five stages:
visibility, static figure construction, transformation, stasis, and iconization.
The Stardom Trajectory model offers a multi-layered conceptual
framework for understanding how television figures
achieve enduring stardom through representational continuity,
familiarity, and the temporal dynamics of persona construction,
contributing an original analytical perspective to studies of television
stardom and cultural iconization.