Social Influence Of Celebrity

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a celebrity as a person who is famous and celebrated. According to Turner, however, a celebrity is someone most likely from the entertainment or sports industries, with greater public interest in their personal lives than their public lives. Turner also says, their claim to fame would be their fame itself. Since celebrities have a certain public image, they also hold an ability to change people’s attitude and/or behaviour, also known as influence.

Danny Bonaduce says that people only consume content about celebrities as an escape from real-world issues. Robert Thompson says they provide a form of familiarity, and are a common topic for people to chat or gossip about (Rosenbaum). Some say that while the

Prestige is an important source of social influence, and a social status that places extra significance on the person which increases the weight of their opinions. It has been long recognized that the power of prestige make somebody’s evaluations relevant for others (Lindenberg, Joly and Stapel). Research done on celebrities by Ferris singled out success as their main source of prestige. This would mean that people care about the words and actions of celebrities due to their success, which leads to an increase of their social influence. Such an example is Kylie Jenner, who landed a spot on TIME magazine’s list of “Most Influential Teens” in 2014 and 2015. She dominated the beauty world by setting fashion and beauty trends. Even an entire movement called the “Kylie Jenner Challenge” on social media started, as people wanted their lips to look like

According to a poll conducted of 2,577 adults between September 18 to 24, 2013 by Harris Interactive, 53% of Americans agree that celebrities can make a large difference to social causes they support. One example is the 2008 U.S. Presidential Elections (Garthwaite and Moore). Oprah Winfrey is considered one of the most influential women in the world - books like Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina experienced phenomenal increases in sales after Oprah recommended them. She had previously never shown support for a presidential candidate. As such, Garthwaite and Moore estimate that Oprah’s endorsement of Barack Obama led to over 1 million votes in the latter’s favour. It is also widely believed that her endorsement decided - or helped to decide - that Obama was the Democratic presidential candidate.

Malala Yousafzai rose to prominence after being attacked by the Taliban for fighting for girls’ education in Pakistan. The media coverage surrounding her helped raise awareness and spark dialogue about global illiteracy. She was also able to start the Malala Petition which urges the United Nations (UN) to recommit to goals involving universal primary education for children. The petition had been signed by 3 million people as of when the article was reported