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Whether celebrities have their privacy
Whether celebrities have their privacy
Effects of mass media on the individual
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I have been interested in the paparazzi and the people who stalk celebrities since my brother first started his musical career. When people would say how lucky I was to have a famous family member, I wished they could see the other side. Our perspective was not nearly the glamorous lifestyle that many people imagined. Our life stories, candid statements, and friendships are examined like it is evidence for a major crime scene. Studying the issue from my unique perspective, I also realized the solution was not as simple as I thought. The constitutionality of legislating a person’s right to chronicle another’s life came into play. And recently, as I enrolled in college as a photography major, I had yet another perspective to add to my research. Should the federal government rush through legislation specifically to curtail the activity’s of the paparazzi, or is there a less constitutionally threatening alternative?
Who are the paparazzi? Many definitions exist for the paparazzi. Oxford dictionary defines the word as “a freelance photographer who pursues celebrities to get photographs of them.” James Howe expands on the definition by adding “they are photographers who seek out and follow celebrities, or crash events to which they were not invited, in order to photograph them in their most unguarded moments” (Howe 17). My interpretation of the paparazzi is photographers who chase, badger, or harass their subjects in an unwelcome environment. It does not pertain to photographers or photojournalists who cover red carpet events, nightclubs, concerts, or promotional tours. Candid shots and documentaries where a photographer is invited are not considered acts of the paparazzi.
Pursue, seek out, crash events--is this really freedom of...
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...paparazzi the opportunity to make a living. The balance must also be one that will allow creative expression by these artists. But there must also be restraint. Allowing the celebrity to go about a somewhat normal life when on private property, at a child’s school function, at the funeral of a loved one, would go a long way toward making this a functional relationship. Perhaps the most important issue is allowing for the safety of celebrities and their families. In the end, the insatiable demand for more and more information about the lives of the celebrity is driving a dangerous frenzy around these talented people. In the end, perhaps the bigger challenge is this—how do we teach people to live and appreciate their own fulfilling lives rather than spending so much time and money living through others? Might this be the true solution to this problem?
Marshall P. David (1997). Celebrity Power; Fame in Contemporary Culture. May 16, 2010. Electronically retrieved from
As celebrities stand distinctively among the masses and cast out their halos of personality charm and strong suits of skilled abilities, the controversies about them are unavoidable shadows created from their fame. With the popularization of celebrity culture, information synchronization, and communication technology, their lives are publicly exposed and various forms of media (depending on eras) record their flaws. Tough information transmitted to audiences are frequently biased, evidences of objective reality remains, even in the remote past.
The question of paparazzi threatening privacy and First Amendment rights is often to situational to argue in a conventional manner, but certainly there are many facets of the issue which can be addressed in a quite straightforward manner. Celebrities who feel they have the right to privacy in public places often muddy the waters of this issue. Oddly enough, those celebrities who have chosen to speak out against what they feel are violations of their privacy most always begin their campaigns with a large press conference. In other words, they gather together those people they wish to not only suppress but also berate in hopes that these people will use their positions and skills to carry these celebrity's messages to the public. Is often seems that theses celebrities want it "both ways" in that they appreciate coverage when they have a movie, record, or book coming out, but not at any other time.
...uld be justifiable to emphasize that a good number of them find it sickening to miss the limelight. . Nonetheless, it goes without mentioning that celebrities get exploited because some gossip stories explore the things that would otherwise be considered to be private.
“Posts.” Fame is a dangerous Drug: A Phenomenological Glimpse of Celebrity.” N.p. ,n.d. Web 15. Feb 2014
No matter where a person goes throughout the United States, they will not walk through the streets of New Jersey or New York for long before they hear the latest scandals with Kim Kardashian or Miley Cyrus. If a person walks into any public store they’ll quickly hear discussion of the latest stars on American Idol from passersby. While we scoff at the antics of celebrities, but at the same time we can foster an almost fanatical desire to be as if not more famous then the people everyone talks about. It is rather human to feel envy, jealously, and desire; we all want to be looked favorably upon. We roll our eyes when someone repeatedly states how beautiful or intelligent a celebrity is, yet even a skeptic can’t help but desire the admiration that celebrity received. Why do men work out? Why do women use such extensive amounts of cosmetics? Why are people so determined to be revered? The answer to individual’s thirst for fame can vary but it’s unavoidable to assume that individual wanted to be the center of attention. We want to be admired, favored, and loved as much as the celebrities that we worship. Reality television has shifted to show the “perfect” life of our celebrities and how happy they are compared to the common people. Neoliberals and authoritarian realized how our fanatical love for our celebrities can be used against us as to quote Frank Furedi from his academic journal on the topic of celebrity culture in which he has stated in the abstract in his first page: “Often celebrity provides an alternative source of validation. The tendency to outsource authority to the celebrity represents an attempt to bypass the problem of legitimacy by politicians and other figures.” Through celebrities’ neoliberals and
The deception of media consumers allows for the abuse of economic infrastructures of society. An obsession with celebrities’ lives passifies ordinary people in accepting the stratification of the elite businesses and the ordinary citizens. Though pseudo-events and celebrity worship may not be exactly complementary, the similarities of both leaves the public to be utterly vulnerable unless they begin to critically think for themselves.
It is fundamental to the business. Every little detail the public wants to follow, like what and where they are eating, whom they will marry, or what they are doing all day – such a vicious cycle. Sometimes stars want publicity and press, and many of them have opened their lives to the public on social media, or reality shows. However, some of them just want to have a little bit of privacy in their lives when they spend time with their families such as vacations, sexual preferences, etc. What kind of limitations should be applied to the paparazzi?
Photographing an individual whether famous or not in public will not violate that person’s privacy under the laws in most countries. Assuming the paparazzi isn’t assaulting someone or trespassing or otherwise doing something illegal while taking such a picture, he or she will not be violating the law. Public figures do not ask for a total invasion of their privitness .Few of us lead lives that are not classified into a newsworthy. Just because these people contribute to their profession in front of the world, it does not mean that they should be denied the right to privacy and respect. Therefore Paparazzi should be banned from exposing people’s private lives, any way they want.
After observing and researching all the sources portraying celebrities I have came into a conclusion that todays society it seems like all we want is to be accepted and we tend to look at other people and judge. Its not right, we all are different and thats what makes the world go round. It would be a pretty boring world if we were all the same. Celebrities deal with this everyday, I think the paparazzi know more about some celebrities lives than they actually do. They judge them for who they are and what they do, it is not right nor fair.
We are part of a generation that is obsessed with celebrity culture. Celebrities are distinctive. Media and consumers alike invented them to be a different race of super beings: flawless, divine and above all the real moral world. In a 1995 New York Times article “In contrast, 9 out of 10 of those polled could think of something
utilize social media websites causing their fans to feel “like they ‘know’ them through their
The gossip industry has become popular in the last few decades. Our society enjoys knowing about the lives of celebrities. We obsess over celebrities on gossip websites, and even obsess to the extent of stalking these celebrities. This industry has impacted our culture immensely. It has tainted our culture in several ways from creating bad role models for our children to making stalking an everyday affair; either way, the media has changed our society greatly. The gossip industry has brought new entertainment for our pleasure, but it has come with negative consequences.
They want to know everything about them and have a desire for more information. Celebrities should have their right to privacy due to historical/practical rights, their invasion of privacy with paparazzi, and their childrens’ rights to privacy. They are ordinary people just with a famous role in life. Historical/practical rights are one of the biggest issues and it all started back in colonial America. In colonial America, privacy was constrained.
The term paparazzi is defined as a freelance photographer, usually one who takes candid pictures of celebrities for publication. The term originated from the surname of the 1959 Federico film, La Dolce Vita. Now, the connotation that arises from the word “paparazzi” is much stronger than just a freelance photographer. The paparazzi are annoying, persistent photographers who, in essence, stalk their celebrity victims and go to any length necessary to get the photograph they desire. But, the paparazzi are doing their job to please the public. Paparazzi tend to target celebrities that fascinate the public; the public’s obsession encourages the paparazzi in their pursuit. The public never calls out the paparazzi for invading the celebrities’ privacy; they only call them out when harm or threats come to the celebrity (Nordhaus 286).