Visible Sacrifices: Media Visibility as a Contemporary Sacrifice

Abstract

The article focuses on the relationship between visibility and sacrifice based on an ethnographic research about fame and visibility in a media context. Starting from several interviews, an extensive literature review and a case study, I tackle sacrifice from an anthropological perspective and in line with a reflection on its nexus with the scenario of contemporary societies and their mediatized culture. This allows us to conclude with a critique of the universalism of René Girard's sacrificial theory, while underlining its importance for understanding the hegemony of contemporary neoliberal capitalism in its use of the image.