What is the cultural role of celebrity - Essay Example

The cultural role of celebrities By Celebrity culture Introduction Celebrity culture is an important modern phenomenon that begun amid 20th century trends as rapid development of consumers’ culture as well as urbanization. It is a symbiotic business relationship from which performers acquire honours, affluence and social powers for exchanging a sense of intimacy to the viewers. Celebrity can produce intense recognition at athlete arenas, rock concerts and other displays of fantasy objects, whether recorded or live and mechanically produced. Celebrities, whether singers, actors, dancers, the wealthy, designers, DJs, reality-show lowlifes, athletes, models, personalities and journalists are just like any other person even though famous. This paper is a discussion on the cultural roles of celebrities (Couldry & Markham, 2007). Stardom and fandom Celebrity culture entails popularizing some individuals who poses some certain attributes that are deemed exceptional by the society. In the modern world, such attributes may not or may be exceptional. Back in the days of actresses, actors, producers, authors, singers, dancers and sportspersons, individuals needed to poses certain virtues and talents to be known throughout the globe. Now it is common for individuals to be well recognized and in celebrity magazines and television talks as a result of their belligerent self promotion and unethical behaviour. Since the past five decades, hundreds of science fictions and fantasy conventions have been organized from around the world (Lynch, 2007). They have been fuelled by the appearance of directors, actors, writers and designers promoting their latest projects, having their pictures taken, responding to questions of varying obscurity and signing autographs for the thousands of fans. Stardom is all about acknowledging the position and status of celebrity in the society. People sometimes become famous through dating someone of high status or entering reality TV. Unfortunately, celebrity culture will always have an impact on our society. Social media has enabled celebrities to be constantly in the media, they have become role models for teenagers and adolescents. Attention towards celebrity culture makes for a multi-billion industry in personality sites. This has raised a number of issues, many of them contentious and causes major debates pertaining to the power of the famed individuals. Celebrity charisma or talent Charisma is a behavioural quality that can be developed by any individual and not just celebrities. Charisma is a force of personal presence, force of character or gravitas. Talented celebrities with charisma tend to be listened to, noticed, followed and respected. A strong charismatic individual presence is important for teaching, leading, speaking, selling and relationship of all sorts. Having a charismatic force of character is important for defending others and for complaining, negotiating and seeking redness especially when directed to individuals of higher authorities or people who believe they are better than you. Charisma and other human qualities like knowledge, leadership and wisdom were often considered a preserve of the elite. However, the modern world is making it possible for everyone to become a celebrity (Lynch, 2007). Charisma and talent is not just about showing off, but is also closely related to assertiveness. Charisma has enabled celebrities to inspire as well as impact on the external environment. Celebrities are able to lead, inspire, develop and teach individuals especially the teenagers. Most young people have been influenced by celebrities on various aspects such as fashion, dancing styles and character. Television personalities Various personalities have utilized the television as a medium for influence. The obsession with celebrities has offered a power of authorities over ideologies, ideas and even authentic human connections (Parry-Giles, 2011). According to Schickel, “we have come a very long way in a very short duration to our present desperate hopes, subjectivity, and isolation and with the belief that the cult of personality may substitute for a sense of purpose, organization and stability in the society. The fashion, character and other qualities that are revealed by various celebrities through television as a media has influenced the behaviours of the consumers. Due to the influence of media personalities on the society, business people and firms have focused on the influence to help advertise their products to the people. Most of the television programs around the world tend to provide different formats of viewing animation, news, music, educational programs children programs, telenovelas, soap operas, game shows or reality shows, fantaseryes and many other programs that capture various celebrities who impact negatively or positively on the lives of the people in the world. Classification of celebrities There are various types of celebrities around the world. Celebrities can be categorises as the classical celebrities, the entertainment celebrity, the industry celebrity, the temporary celebrity, the fall from the grace celebrity and religion celebrities. Religion celebrities are individuals such as priests, pastor, prophets and including the pop who posses huge influence among its followers. The fall from grace celebrities are individuals such as Barry Bonds, Tiger woods’ and Lindsay Lohan (Marcus, 2015). The villain celebrities include LeBron James, Kin Kadashian, Jerry Sandusky and Casey Anthony. The temporary celebrities include Justin Bieber and Katy Perry. Industrial celebrities tend to entertain in a unique manner. Their innovation has changed the lives of many people. They include individuals such as Bill gates, Steve Johns and Mark Zuckerberge. The entertainment celebrities are people who conduct performances that are termed as unforgettable and those who develop a connection with the people on their screens. They include celebrities such as Betty White and Jerry Seinfeld. Classical celebrities are those that their influence will persist for decades. They include Hollywood types like Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Angeline Jolie. Celebrities as a business Every day customers are often exposed to thousands of images and voices in magazines, billboards, radio, television and websites. Every brand struggles to at least make use of unsuspected individuals’ time to inform them of different and amazing attributes of the product at hand. The target of every marketer is to identify a hook that will help to hold the attention of the subject. In order to achieve this, marketers have ensured that they are able to utilize celebrity endorsers as marketing communication strategy. Many companies are now utilizing unknown or known people to convey their message towards the consumers. Messages that are often delivered by celebrities mostly achieve more attention as a result of the influence of celebrities towards the people. People tend to purchase items that are associated with certain celebrity as a way of identifying themselves with them (Parry-Giles, 2011). Celebrity as a business can also be revealed through entertainment and performance. Performance and event organizers as well as television channels and other media forms tend to generate a lot of income when celebrities are hosted. In addition, celebrities have also been involved in political platforms and campaigns with an intention of convincing the masses to support a certain party. The move has generated a lot of capital for them from the political leaders. Roles of celebrities and the public sphere Celebrities present have both negative and positive impacts on the environment. Advances in social media and technology have increased the access of individuals on the society. There are magazine covers, television sets, internet blogs, and movie screaming to be watched and read and they are plastered with images of tacky celebrities. When a life of parties, drugs, short-term relationships and alcohol are leading celebrities such as Paris, Britney and Lindsay goes out of control, their lifestyles seems to be far much different from the ideals. The overall contents that celebrities put on movies, television and other social media platforms tend to affect most young people and parents are concerned (Hamad and Taylor, 2015). Practicing awful morals by pop culture idols tend to have a negative influence on the lives of the young people who are their fans. The notions of models striving to be thinner and thinner have also influenced the young girls to be unhealthy thin. This move has caused many young girls to develop some eating disorders as a way of having a thin body. Celebrities present a negative impact on both the personalities, looks and health of their fans. With movie stars taking drugs and lighting cigarettes on television screens, many youths have begun doing the same hence such celebrities have a negative influence to the society. However, not all celebrities have a negative influence on the society, some celebrities have utilize social media to change the behaviour of the young people, condemn some bad cultures and morals that are conducted in the society as well as passing peace and love messages around the world through their songs. It is time for celebrities to utilize the media to send messages against drug as well as messages in support of other health behaviours due to huge influence towards the people. Celebrities should utilize their influence on the public sphere to pass messages of peace, good behaviours and encouragement towards their numerous fans in the world (Lynch, 2007). Importance of celebrity culture Celebrity culture is of particular interest in the modern world. Celebrity issue has attracted an increasing literature which is split on its costs and benefits. Celebrities are role models to millions of peoples, especially the young people. The detailed narratives pertaining to the lives of celebrities, sexuality, their struggle for identity, performance in the public arena and giving birth fascinates a lot of people in the world. Celebrity culture is an vital part of public debates on issues that require public resolution whether as part of a broader narrativisation of democracy or increasing personalization of politics (Furedi, 2010). Gender differences in celebrity culture Celebrity culture is gendered both in consumption of fame and production and the fact has been neglected in previous studies. The main issue is the role of subjectivity and the ways in which celebrity culture is both consumed and sold by the sexes differently (Couldry & Markham, 2007). A content analysis of heat, hello and ok, the leading celebrity magazines in the United Kingdom is offered and demonstrates a clear division of topics that are deemed to be of influence to the young female for their subjective engagements that is centred on fashion, looks and relationships. A good example is centred on Victoria and David Beckham. Celebrity culture tends to present gender differently. Men are portrayed seriously while women are portrayed sexually. Celebrity culture has a polarized tendency of observing the positions of women within the society as manipulated by male media. Conclusion I believe that celebrity culture should be a concern as a result of the various influences that celebrities have towards the entire human race in the world. Celebrities should utilize their influence to enhance good morals among the young people. In addition the social media platforms should be used by the various celebrities to pass messages of love, peace, unity and togetherness among the people. Celebrities should utilize such a platform to condemn acts that are unacceptable to the society. It is time for celebrities to cease from driving the youths into bad habits such as practising drugs (Couldry & Markham, 2007). References Couldry, N.; Markham, T. 2007. culture and public connection: bridge or chasm?International Journal of Cultural Studies 10(4), pp.403-421 Furedi, F. 2010. Celebrity Culture. Soc, 47(6), pp.493-497. Hamad, H. and Taylor, A. 2015. Introduction: feminism and contemporary celebrity culture. Celebrity Studies, 6(1), pp.124-127. Lynch, P. 2007. Framing Celebrity: New Directions in Celebrity Culture. Brit Pol, 2(2), pp.289-290. Marcus, S. 2015. Celebrity, Past and Present. Public Culture, 27(1 75), pp.1-5. Parry-Giles, T. 2011. Harry Potter and the paradoxical critique of celebrity culture. Celebrity Studies, 2(3), pp.305-319. Read More