A model proposal for the stardom process of television figures: “The Stardom Trajectory” and representative figures from Turkish television

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.