Non-heroic heroes: Two approaches to the analysis of media images∗

In the contemporary society, media ‘heroes’ are one of the most influential reference groups, which determines our perception of our own life in terms of happiness, success, justice, well-being, or, on the contrary, in opposite terms. The article is a review of two books: Salakhieva-Talal T. Psychology in Cinema: How to Make Heroes and Stories. Moscow: Alpina non-fiction; 2019. 349 p.; and Lilti A. The Invention of Celebrity. Transl. from French by P.S. Kashtanova. Saint Petersburg: Ivan Limbakh Publishing House; 2018. 496 p. The author believes that such works are necessary to broaden the horizons of the sociologist focusing on the development of social representations of happiness, justice and well-being: these works explain psychological and visual (the first book) and historical and media (the second book) prerequisites and tools for creating ‘heroes’ as role models. © M.V. Subbotina, 2021.