Marcus S. Levy: A 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

Do you know the guiltiest pleasure of the American public? Two simple words reveal all—reality TV. This new segment of the TV industry began with pioneering shows like MTV’s The Real World and CBS’s Survivor. Switch on primetime television nowadays, and you will become bombarded by and addicted to numerous shows all based on “real” life. There are the heartwarming tales of childbirth on TLC, melodramas of second-rate celebrities on Celebrity Mole, and a look into a completely dysfunctional family on The Osbornes. Yet, out of all these entertaining reality shows arises the newest low for popular culture, a program based on the idea of a rich man or woman in search of

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.

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.

For thousands of years people have obsessed over celebrities. In Collin Palmer’s short essay response, he suggests that Deborah King exaggerates the harm of a celebrity obsession. I agree with Palmer because even though we students may obsess over some famous people, to us it is just harmless fun.

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

Throughout this analysis, is a discussion of the real ethics of reality TV and how the current gender, media and popular culture depict a fusion between reality and reality on TV. The writing is based upon the "Real Appeal: The Ethics of Reality TV", Catehrine Lumby and Elspeth Probyn. The idea that anyone can become famous is not fairly evident upon most TV viewers; however it is clear that TV makes the viewer believe that what they are viewing is true and it is for this reason that it becomes reality TV. TV exposes the public to a rather promiscuous vision of reality and this tends to be the apex of reality TV. Quite clearly, as Lumby states, Reality television, as its name suggests, is a genre which attempts to trade off its

Since ancient times, people have always admired celebrities, putting them above themselves as if they were gods. In her article, The Impact Celebrities Have on Our Lives, Deborah King feels that our “obsession” with celebrities is unhealthy. However, I agree with Collin Palmer’s short essay response, where he states that having an “obsession” with a celebrity isn’t as deleterious as King portrays it to be.

Ever since the start of commercial radio in the 20’s and the since the first silver screen entered the market, broadcasting messages by celebrities has been a tool employed to endorse products.”Just about every star was associated with one sponsor’s product he or she plugged.”(1). Over the years celebrity endorsement became an essential part of marketing (more than 25% of television ads feature celebrities)(5), for the endorser it became an easy way of generating an income while for the endorsing company it became a guaranteed way to reach a wide segment of potential clients.

When it comes to celebrities, society is under the impression that celebrities live this ideal lifestyle. The common perception is that because celebrities are very wealthy, they get special treatment, and the recognition they get from fans is what makes them “perfect,” but society never puts focus on the disadvantages of their lifestyle. In author Mary Loftus, “The Other Side of Fame,” some of the downsides are the lack of privacy and the chemical dependence celebrities use to help cope with all the pressure from the fame. If I was a celebrity, the downsides that come with the fame would affect the mental stability I have as a normal person, and therefore make it difficult for me to manage that lifestyle.

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.

As Boorstin (1962, p.18) puts it we live in an “illusionary” world of created characters surrounded by “pseudo events”. This viewpoint indicates the powerful role of the mass media in the fabrication of everyday consciousness. He argues that people are haunted in a way, not by reality, but by those images the public has put in place of reality. Celebrities are “human pseudo events”, entirely mass media constructions to be presented as “heroes”. This essay focuses on how achieved celebrities could be informal life coaches through their own talent and skills, their impact on society and the interdependent role of the mass media and cultural intermediaries on the commodification of the culture. Finally, it highlights the growth of notoriety

No doubt every simian tribe of hunter-gatherers had their local celebrities: the woman who gave birth to quintuplets, the boy who swallowed a porcupine and survived, the man who wrestled with a tyrannosaurus and... well, he probably would have died, but celebrity status would have been applied posthumously.

Celebrities are a huge element in today’s society that a world without them is even hard to imagine because we are so accustom to seeing them all the time and everywhere we go whether it is in television, magazines and especially in social media. They have this power that we, as a society allow them to have and they are able to influence us all in different ways sometimes without themselves even realizing the impact they have. The role they have is so huge that we are constantly wanting to know everything about them, what they wear, what they eat and what they are doing. Celebrities are a part of our culture and it is hard to ignore the fact that we look up to them, it is as if they were up on a pedestal making them so much more important