David Cox's Celebrity Culture

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

Celebrity culture is a mixture of good and bad for society because it makes people complacent with issues that are wrong just to stay in the public eye, like whitewashing and sexism but also can help fight against those issues. For example, most shows are filled with straight, white guys as if other people, like POC, LGBT and women don't exist. Even if a show is centered around a women, the show is about there relationship with men, or has a romantic dynamic to it. Also, female celebrities are controlled by ageism where they are deemed “unworthy” or “too old” once they hit a certain age while men can be expected to continue acting and being in the spotlight far older than women would ever be allowed. Like how Scout Durwood states in “Pop Culture-

Chris Hedges’ “American Psychosis” is one author’s explanation behind the perceived degradation of America, attributing this decay mostly to a nationwide engrossment in the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Hedges further purports that the American government itself is behind making famous people front-and-center at all times, so that the populace has no chance to focus on the nation’s actual problems. He suggests that this reality TV state-of-mind turns life into a “world of unadulterated competition” where our attention-craving society discards the losers “like Styrofoam boxes that held junk food”. Those ‘excess’ human beings who cannot keep up with the endless quest for notoriety, he contends, end up unemployed, imprisoned, or homeless, because the only worth humans have in the modern world is their ability to make headlines. The final piece of his article is dedicated to fomenting some kind of vengeful revolution against celebrity culture, in which the public purges itself of inconsequential distractions so that they can once again separate illusion from reality.

Being a celebrity has now become a culture. Even though those who are a part of society may not get to meet those who are famous or infamous there is still a need to be entertained. In the past this entertainment came from men and women who achieved something great, now it comes from them being involved in entertainment such as reality television programs, and those who are just simply famous. The author, Marcus S. Levy, questions the enigma why society is entertained by those who entertain us. The possibility entertainment is an addiction for people the same way drugs or alcohol is. Levy shares his thoughts on how society is entertained by the entertainers and the shift of whom are considered to be entertainers of today. This source is biased

In the article, entitled “The Impact Celebrities Have on Our Lives,” Deborah King establishes the reasons why being overly obsessed with celebrities can lead to bad habits. To begin with, King points out that everyone is too obsessed with celebrities. The article indicates that the younger the audience, the more likely they will try to be like them and want what they have. Furthermore, King writes that even though there are positive celebrities out there, people seem to be more obsessed with the celebrities that make bad influences on people. In addition, she emphasizes that even though there are celebrities that seem like good role models for their audience, they have a private life that no one seems to know about. As a result, King concludes

This hunt causes many celebrities to become primarily occupied in their own life and focused solely on themselves. Celebrities become so egotistical because “in a world where the celebrity is hardly ever told ‘no,’ a predominantly self-centered orientation can occur” (Rockwell and Giles 189). Becoming so narcissistic causes many to go down the path towards self-importance. The desire for pride becomes addictive on the journey towards fame, and according to Donna Rockwell and David C. Giles, “It becomes difficult for the person to imagine living without fame…one said, ‘I’ve been addicted to almost every substance known to man at one point or another, and the most addiction of them all is fame’” (Rockwell and Giles 184).

Like death, fame is nothing new, but we never seem to get tired of it. Fame has been around for as long as there have been people and language. Today, we live in what seems like a fame-obsessed society. The majority of what our social interactions revolves around has to do with fame. Despite the fact that fame seems so important, most of us don't spend much time considering the nature of fame and what we are putting such a high value on as individuals and as a society.

This picture is a perfect portrayal of celebrity culture in today’s era. The desire to be virtually ‘connected’ and share everything in one’s life is the new trend. And this has resulted from the constant competition from the new community of ‘microcelebrities’, which is based on achieving fame through broadcasting oneself through media. One of the demeaning aspect of the picture is the lack of genuineness and enforcement of stylish lifestyle on the audience which makes it loose the emotional quotient.

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

Hollywood is a very powerful modern day institution, where a star's image can characterize, shape and circulate societal myths and ideologies. The construction of a star's image as a commodity of their societal myths and ideologies has the extraordinary power to exert messages so that even the smallest details become significant yet not overtly obvious. How a star's image is produced and then consumed can justify a society's relationship with that image and therefore aid in explaining the social construction of what society deems as their 'reality'. A star's image is created through a range of representations churned out by Hollywood. Capitalism from the commercialization of these images has made Hollywood the dominant force it is

Many people are blind-sighted and tricked into being sucked into the world of celebrities and reality tv. This occurrence is known as celebrity worship syndrome and it can have many detrimental effects. Research has found that celebrity worship syndrome and an addiction to celebrities “has likewise been conceptualized as a search for a solid identity and social role ... and compulsive and obsessional elements are noted at advanced stages of addiction ... Thus, while absorption can partially account for the vividness of delusions related to dissociative experience ... the progression along our hierarchy of celebrity worship might reflect increases in the thresholds of the need and capacity of psychological absorption” (Rockwell). The absorption-addiction model that Rockwell references describes the parasocial relationship of a celebrity and a fan. Typically, due to deficits in a person’s life, a fan will become absorbed into a celebrity's following in order to escape their current life and they eventually become addicted. If an obsession with a celebrity is left unchecked it has the possibility to spiral into thoughts or behaviors that can be harmful to the fan and

Some of us would say “No”, but the majority of us would leap on the prospect of living the life of a celebrity. Who doesn’t want the perks of vacationing all over the world, having someone wait on you hand and foot, receiving freebies from designers and all the other perks that come with being a celebrity? The question is do we want the downfalls that come with fame? Can we handle vicious tabloid scrutiny, fabrications, and assumptions? Being a celebrity has its perks, but at what cost? Fame and money can be the root of all evil. Never the less, we are contributing to the madness when we purchase tabloid magazines, watch entertainment shows that follow celebrity activities and judge them for their actions.

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.

Have you ever wondered what influences us to behave the way we do? Look a certain way? Or even looked for an explanation to what causes us to apply a certain perspective regarding personal and controversial issues? One of the answers to these questions may revolve around the influence we absorb from celebrities. A definitive term for celebrity is an iconic figure to a category or group who has achieved success in one or multiple aspects of their lives. As a result, these individuals have drawn in publicity and fame. Over the years with the advances in media and other forms of communication, celebrities have become topics of discussion worldwide, rather if it’s at school, with colleagues or at the dinner table, it is fair to say that

In celebrity culture, celebrities use social media as a tool to build relationship and stay connected with their fans. Young and Pinsky (2006) make a claim that celebrity culture has generated a curiosity about celebrities’ personal lives. Adding on to this research, Marshall (2010) states that celebrities are willing to reveal their personal lives so that they can gain more followers. He also shows that celebrities reconstruct their profile for online personal branding by uploading personal posts related to their everyday lives. He demonstrates this through observing the actor Vin Diesel on social media. Marshall call this as “the presentation of self”, that celebrities expose their information in three different levels: “public self”, “public private self”, and “transgressive intimate self” (p.44).