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Celebrities and the media
How the media treats celebrities
Celebrities and media influence
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The Oxford English Dictionary defines a celebrity as a “celebrated person,” “much extolled or talked about [OED, 2014].” Wikipedia defines a celebrity as “a person who commands a significant degree of public attention [accessed May 9th, 2014]” However, these definitions are less than complete, as we don’t usually call Adolf Hitler a celebrity even though he still, to this day, is much talked about and commands public attention from the grave; the same could be said of Osama bin Laden, or Joseph Kony. A response, of course, is that even though these are commonly talked about, they are not, as the O.E.D. says, “extolled” or “celebrated.” Yet, are extolled or celebrated people actually considered celebrities, and are the people we call celebrities actually extolled and praised? Albert Einstein or the Dalai Lama are celebrated and praised, but it is unclear if they can be classified as celebrities. One thing is clear, however; celebrities are an ingrained part of our cultural discourse and day to day lives. Celebrity chefs are printed on condiment labels, celebrity actors and singers are constantly visible in daily life, and even celebrity doctors tell us how to live via daytime television. Who are these celebrities? Why (and how) do people become celebrities, and what function do they play in society (if any)? An exploration of such an integral part of our culture, will likely reveal much about ourselves as cultural participants.
The image creation of a celebrity is a bit of a causality dilemma; trying to distinguish if celebrities make their own image and decide what they’re famous for, or if the common people prescribe a celebrity's image, is likely a futile effort. The culture of celebrity can be seen as a democratized process h...
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..., 1995], and the new breed of media celebrity began to resemble simulacra in their own right. Even as far back as Plato, people were dealing with this concept, as Plato refers to statues on the top of buildings that are intentionally distorted out of proportion, in order to make them seem more real for the people on the ground looking up at them; yet, if those statues were to be seen on a real scale, they would seem ridiculous and fake [Plato, “The Sophist”]. The new celebrities of people like Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, or Greta Garbo had become represented by distorted realities, so the common people on the ground could see them in a better light; whether through conscious effort or not, whether through simple ignorance, or whether due to vast disconnects between lifestyles, the public began reducing these people down to their image alone [Marshall, 1997].
Celebrities hold a strong power to influence the lifestyle trends of an audience. As members of the entertainment industry, celebrities are looked up to as role models by a large general public. With such high exposure, celebrities essentially hold the power to positively or negatively influence their followers, from fashion trends to behavioral tendencies, the attitudes and lifestyle habits of celebrities influence cultural qualities and the way in which many people function within society. Mindy Kaling’s career started when she became an intern on the popular show “Late Night with Conan O’ Brien”. Mindy was a 19-year-old sophomore at Dartmouth College when she first started her internship.
A celebrity is not a person known for his/her talent or achievement, but an individual recognized for his/her reputation created by the media. The phase of stardom is slippery, and media may choose to represent celebrities varying from exaggerated admiration to mockery. The three texts chosen, movie "Sunset Boulevard", feature article "Over the Hilton" and television show "Celebrity Uncensored Six" are texts presenting different perception of celebrities than their usual images - either corrupted by the encircling media, overloads oneself with self-indulgence, or just mocks celebrity in a broad spectrum. Such media items empower and impresses the audience by perceiving celebrities as people who pay the price of privacy to gain well knowness, signifying the vanity of stardom from the commonly accepted images.
Marshall P. David (1997). Celebrity Power; Fame in Contemporary Culture. May 16, 2010. Electronically retrieved from
...cians and Creating Celebrity. The media and political process (2 ed., p. 126). London: SAGE.
January 6, 1973, famous anthropologist Margaret Mead published an essay in TV Guide in which she addressed her view of PBS’s series “An American Family.” This series was groundbreaking during that time because is followed the Loud’s, a California family who were neither actors nor public figures just average middle-class family, which was unheard of at the time. The Louds were filmed for seven months and the product was twelve one-hour episodes which showed everything from the monotony of their everyday life to the corrosion of Bill and Pat Loud’s marriage. Meade called this series “a new kind of art form” and marveled at the shows ability to show the drama and entertainment value of the average human condition. Forty years later, as Meade had predicted, reality based television and films have become more understood, respected and prevalent in our modern culture. Extreme success stories of documentaries such as Justin Bieber’s 2011 “Never Say Never” and countless reality shows indicates that a celebrity’s presence , musicians particularly, on reality media channels can change audience’s perceptions, promote new material and help them to stay relevant in the public eye. These “reality” documentaries and TV shows present the audience with carefully edited material that conveys only a fraction of that individual’s personality and character yet has profound effects audience perception and acceptance. The British boy band One Direction is a prime example of how using the model of framing in reality television shows and documentaries effectively promotes projects, molds the opinions of audiences, allows artist to appear more open and relatable and leads to extreme monetary success.
Celebrities are famous people who have public attention, especially in entertainment and sports. Some people around the world are interested to know about them. Celebrity profiles, which are written by specialized individuals, provide knowledge and information about celebrities for them. Phillip Lopate, an American poet and writer, was among the individuals writing celebrity profiles. In his article, he writes about why he gave celebrity profiles up.
There was once a time when there were more simplistic views on life; where truth and justice prevailed above all and the main concerns of society were much more primitive. However, those times have long vanished and have now been strategically replaced by the commodity that celebrity culture fully encompasses. Guy Debord writes in The Society of the Spectacle, that the “spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation amongst people, mediated by images” (Debord, 4). By this, he simply means that the spectacle is constructed by the daily images devised by celebrities, reality television, and pseudo-events. And those images have altered and strongly influenced the way people perceive themselves and others, as well as the social
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
Celebrity has become synonymous with cynosure. And no cynosure doesn’t mean an attention seeking hotshot who is willing to do anything for fame. It is a person that becomes the centre of our admiration and attention due to their brilliance. Is it just me or the thesaurus has got it wrong. Our modern day obsession with celebrities raises the question between respect for sheer brilliance and talent vs. a shallow fascination that is a sign of our degenerating society. Why do these particular people get so much attention? They can either be entertaining or culturally significant.Within the 21st century context, has talent been replaced with controversy, image obsession and mindless presence? (PAUSE)
The celebrity gossip industry has affected our assumptions about entertainment. Usually, we assume that entertainment is just for fun, entertainment is only a reflection of our culture, and entertainment is a personal choice. Nowadays, entertainment is not just for fun. Celebrities entertain us in many ways, but sometimes we do not enjoy what they do yet we still watch them. For instance, many teen idols have had meltdowns. Although it is not fun to...
Much of today’s society seems obsessed on what actors/actress, athletes, and music artist are wearing, eating, who they are marrying, dating, where they are vacationing, what affairs they are having or have had, and how they live their everyday lives. What’s so interesting about this obsession is as a society we are implacable and often place celebrities on a pedestal, only to destroy them when they are illusive or promiscuous. Media outlets are swift to report when celebrities are in trouble but quickly forget all their accomplishments. It’s as if we want them to be perfect but once they are associated with a scandal we embark on destroying their reputation and character. Should society hold celebrities to higher standards just because they are paid millions for endorsements and a craft they worked hard to perfect? Do we as a society have the right to castigate celebrities when they misbehave? Do celebrities have the right to become livid when they are focused on for their immoral behavior? Do they love the media attention only when it benefits them? Before we can answer the above questions, would we, furthermore, can we live our life as a celebrity if given the opportunity?
Movie stars. They are celebrated. They are perfect. They are larger than life. The ideas that we have formed in our minds centered on the stars that we idolize make these people seem inhuman. We know everything about them and we know nothing about them; it is this conflicting concept that leaves audiences thirsty for a drink of insight into the lifestyles of the icons that dominate movie theater screens across the nation. This fascination and desire for connection with celebrities whom we have never met stems from a concept elaborated on by Richard Dyer. He speculates about stardom in terms of appearances; those that are representations of reality, and those that are manufactured constructs. Stardom is a result of these appearances—we actually know nothing about them beyond what we see and hear from the information presented to us. The media’s construction of stars encourages us to question these appearances in terms of “really”—what is that actor really like (Dyer, 2)? This enduring query is what keeps audiences coming back for more, in an attempt to decipher which construction of a star is “real”. Is it the character he played in his most recent film? Is it the version of him that graced the latest tabloid cover? Is it a hidden self that we do not know about? Each of these varied and fluctuating presentations of stars that we are forced to analyze create different meanings and effects that frame audience’s opinions about a star and ignite cultural conversations.
When people think of entertainment, media influence often comes to mind. Reality TV stars and celebrities alike have been placed in limelight acting as role models to not only the youth, but society as a whole. This is an example of the negative influences that entertainment can have as it leads people to hold unrealistic standards and expectations for themselves and others. Some may feel that the entertainment industry makes glamourizes immoral behaviors, making them look fun and harmless. The focus on fitting in and on appearance in the entertainment business have heavily impacted the way our society is today, by promoting the need to be a certain way, both in physical physique and behavior. In fact, people who are considered more attractive, or that fit the molds commonly shown to us, have an easier time obtaining jobs and have access to a broader s...
Celebrity endorsement is a kind of a brand advancement where a popular individual is utilized in the promoting effort to publicize
Have you ever think about the influences of celebrities that affect in people life. Celebrity is a kind of pop-culture that combines between interpersonal communication and media, and it creates desires from the people assumption or expectation. Celebrities are the important tools to attract audiences. The media scholars produce the celebrity content from what people expect from life. Celebrities may drive the directions of living such as habits, tastes, attention and ambition among people (Turnere). Nowadays, celebrities are all around us. They are one of the important people who can influence the media such as movies, drama, music magazines, news or even represent the nation. According to the William’s note celebrities are one part which