The Influence of Celebrities Essay

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

In the article, “The Impact Celebrities Have On Our Lives”, Deborah King, explains that celebrities are people who people obsess over, but not all of them have a positive impact. In the beginning, King points out that society is obsessed with celebrities. She explains that people are always going to the store to buy magazines or go online to look at celebrity gossip. The article also suggests that celebrities are good reflections for us. Also, the impact of celebrities can be positive as well as negative. It is also important to note, that she emphasizes, we secretly want to see them fall so that we know that even our gods have feet have clay. Finally, King concludes that we should be spending our time on something more useful than look

According to Webster dictionary, a celebrity is defined as a famous or celebrated person. Celebrities serves as role models, heroes, cultural commentators, charity spokespeople, and political candidates. An exploration of celebrity culture uncovers changing conceptions of legitimacy, authority, and credibility at play in our culture (The Hedgehog Review, 2005) .There is a celebrity culture that has engulfed Canada, and indeed North America for a while now because celebrity culture is alluring, even to those who are embarrassed to admit it. There has been increasing infiltration of celebrity culture into politics. The media might have deliberately and unwittingly contributed in perpetuating this celebrity culture.

Influence is power, and it can best show the difference between the celebrity and the average citizen. Celebrities don't always use their influence necessarily to try and alter viewpoints. An example of the power celebrity influence

Elvis Presley, when referring to the image celebrities portray, once said, “The image is one thing and the human being is another. It’s very hard to live up to the image.” In the past, celebrities have caught a lot of flack for who they are, or whom they show themselves as, especially in magazine articles. With interviews such as the infamous Tom Cruise incident on Oprah, it is no surprise that many celebrities now try to blend in. In Katie Roiphe’s reading “Profiles Encouraged” on page 439 of the Remix book, she talks about exactly that. Long gone are the days where interviews and profiles, a fancy term for biographies, show the honest truth, she says. Now they are all about giving the people what they want to hear. Roiphe makes some well-thought out claims in her essay, but the lack of diversity when it comes to the actors makes the argument weak.

In order to believe in one’s self, they must ignore what the world thinks of them. Emerson quotes, “whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist.” (Emerson 271) this quote relates to not just the celebrities, but the everyday person. When one celebrity listens to what the world thinks of them they would probably never be the great star they are now. If the “average joe” listen to everybody listen to their peers they would end up doing nothing with their

A celebrity is defined by the media and society through characterisations; the introduction of various on-line and print media platforms enhance the presence of celebrity culture, such for advertising, activism, different genres of television (e.g. reality, gastronomical), and even political avenues as well (Driessens). Their fame is developed based on prominence cum establishment in the entertainment industry that transforms their recognition into a popular culture. In Graeme Turner’s Understanding Celebrity, he discusses the effects of contemporary popular culture representing celebrity as an icon of cultural change (Turner Understanding Celebrity). The power of a celebrity uses his status and popularity to create discourse with the public and media; how each present themselves to an audience in performances or marketing, these functions as general tokens of success in their glamourous lives (Driessens). The discursive effect in the celebrity contemporary culture aligns close to religion, with some qualities credited to particular celebrities and religious figures. The way some fans admire their celebrity figures reflects a spiritual experience, as fans view their idol as a person with immortal talents and influential qualities. This phenomenon is linked to how the media glorifies the celebrity and thus, produces a celebrated figure with an astounding influence amongst the public (Turner Understanding Celebrity). As a result, the celebrity’s economic value is

Celebrities have taken on a unique role in the twenty-first century, one that is more extreme than the entertainment sector has ever known. Celebrity status is now almost forming an extra limb to the bureaucracy of the world, and their fame makes them all politicians at one point or another. In 2009, the Journal of Business Ethics published an article titled, “Ethics of Celebrities and Their Increasing Influence in the Twenty-first Century Society.” Within the article, they outline the powers held by modern day celebrities in the following quote. “The global influence of celebrities in the 21st century extends far beyond the entertainment sector. During the recent Palestinian presidential elections, the Hollywood actor Richard Gere broadcast a televised message to voters in the region and stated, ‘Hi, I’m Richard Gere, and I’m speaking for the entire world.’” The power goes beyond simple elections as well. Emma Watson spearheads a feminist movement known as “He for She”, in which she asks that men around the world pledge to promote the ideals of gender equality and fairness. It is important to note that the “He for She” movement has generated its velocity from the stage of the United Nations, and at the hand of a celebrity, not a world leader. This is not to say

Throughout history, the media has caught some of the most horrific scenes on camera. While it is great that these events were documented, one cannot help but wonder how much is too much when prying into the lives of public figures. Even celebrities need a time to grieve; yet that time seems limited when they are constantly being harassed by men with cameras trying to give the best account of the situation. Since the introduction of the television, and possibly before, news broadcasters have been concerned with one objective— relaying the most interesting and informative report of the breaking story, regardless of the effects of their curiosity. In most cases of

First of all, celebrity obsession is something to talk about, since we always hear and gossip about celebrities. Deborah King’s assumption that celebrity

Celebrities have become such a major part of American culture and heavily influenced society on how we, average people, live our lives. Throughout the world, people look up to celebrities as if they are some sort of God. Their admiration for celebrities has now become an obsession. These average people of society basically stalk these celebrities. They constantly check social media sites to see what a celebrity is doing and talk about these people like they know them personally. Beyoncé’s fans verbally attacked Rachel Roy and her daughter all because of one part of a song. Beyoncé never confirmed any of the rumors, but her fans were on the hunt to attack anyone they saw as a threat to Beyoncé. In today’s society, people put these celebrities

A celebrity is more than just an individual. As O’Shaughnessy and Stadler describe in Media and Society, they are the sum of everything affiliated with them from carefully planned promotions to uncontrolled publicity. Therefore, the celebrity cannot exist without the audience. The audience creates the celebrity from their intertextual and extratextual knowledge; in other words, from the celebrity’s performances as well as external sources. Whether these two personalities connect or disconnect determines whether they are seen as

There are many people who stretch the idea of our “obsessions” with celebrities. In Deborah King’s article, “The Impact of Celebrities”, she argues that people are obsessed with celebrities in an unhealthy way. However, in Palmer’s short essay response, he assumes that King exaggerates our “obsession” with celebrities. Although King’s argument is strong, I have to agree with Palmer that being obsessed with celebrities isn’t as bad as King suggests.

As I read through this verbose chapter I began to pick up on the dominating themes of celebrity culture and their development over time. I consider myself somewhat of a celebrity super fan but as I read I realized I have never dove deeper into the meaning of celebrity but merely skimmed the surface. During my perusal of the chapter many thought-provoking concepts jumped out at me.

It has become easier to be allured by what is portrayed on television, since we are spending most of our free time watching it. A study in the British Journal of Psychology, "showed no bias related to age or gender of celebrity worshipers...The test also showed no celebrity bias, indicating that Celebrity Worship applies equally to acting, music, sports, and other ' celebrities" (2002, p 67).