Characteristic of Fan Culture - Essay Example

Fan culture Fan culture has for a long time been a way in which celebrity figures have maintained their stature and popularity. Arguably, fan culture is the aspect in which celebrities experience much attention especially by the media. The media are tools used to educate, inform, and provoke society in to learning new aspects of culture1. Subsequently, this is what shapes the basis for fan culture. Ideally, every media tool has a way in which they tend to highlight the happenings within celebrities lives. Therefore, a celebrity is an individual who has a prominent stature who commands a lot of attention from the public and influence the profitability of certain media houses. With these aspects in mind, this essay will delve in how the phenomena of celebrities tend to dominate the media. In addition, it will establish the relationship between stardom and consumerism to the Hollywood lifestyle and the stars mythological fulfillment of deep-sited needs those that religion can fulfill. Additionally, it will reflect on how the internet has influenced celebrity stardom by highlighting on the life of one celebrity to try to bring out the establishment and maintenance of their status. Lastly, it will give the ways in which the media has influenced fandom as a marketing tool and how the collection of memorabilia works in maintaining fan sociality. The relationship between stardom and contemporary consumerism within Hollywood Over the years, celebrities have become symbols to which many international recognized brands attribute their increase in sales. However, using a celebrities name or brand is highly risky venture, as it may attract a lawsuit to the advertisers. In this regard, it is vital to engage a celebrity before using their branded ego for personal gain. The celebrity’s presence in an article or publication becomes the attractive factor in drawing potential readers in to viewing them. Therefore, consumerism and stardom have extremely close relation to each other, as they both complement each other in order to maximize on wealth regeneration. According to De Cordova2, celebrities played a crucial aspect in the popularization of values of consumerism3. Their involvement in consumerism is because of the active participation of their managers and their agents in seeking their means of acquiring alternative sources of income. Ideally, the celebrities do not mainly rely on their acting roles or their singing roles to make money, but they also use commercials to make an extra coin due to their already established brands. Their agents ensure that the commercials pay them according to their stature without infringing on their abilities to make more money. In essence, it becomes a win-win situation to both parties, as they both gain from the venture. Therefore, consumerism draws close influence from celebrity involvement in product adverting for marketers especially in Hollywood. Stars fulfillment of the mythological needs especially on religious matters Tentatively, society portrays celebrities to possess some God like attributes that are contrary to reality4. Their constant appearance on media tools cultivates the antidote that they are vital in the public depiction of society’s ways of doing things. According to certain societies, the term celebrity depicts the marked aspect of a person in which their image surpasses religion or regulations of the land. Essentially, celebrities become demigods in this way. Mostly, celebrities tend to have varied beliefs in different gods. This is to mean that celebrities quest to fulfill their religious curiosity by believing in other gods other than the God worshipped by other people. In a way, their lives tend to lean towards modernity and inevitable spread of liberal culture. On the contrary, the worshipping of celebrities has become common practice in many of today’s societies5. This practice is a form of idol worship that draws condemnation from the public. For instance, the emotional dependence created by obsessed fans may lead them in to having fictional intimate relationships with their adored celebs. To many, their imagination of being intimate with their idolized celebrities was a form of religious practice that made them feel more close to them. With these two concepts in mind, the bottom line becomes the fact celebs tend to influence the religious inclination of both their followers and themselves. Internet influence on star culture In many ways, the internet and the web have generally changed society’s view of societies and ways of interacting with them. It has become the determining factor of whom a celebrity is unlike in the olden days when this determination was a by a selected few. Additionally, the access to the internet by many people has created danger to the celebrities because of the ability to transmit images to the internet at the click of a button. For this reason, celebrity photos have made unnecessary and intended rounds on internet sites posted by malicious and anonymous individuals. It has become a mode of tainting the reputation of public figures and their opposites alike. In addition, the internet has affected the celebrity privacy in that features like Google maps has helped paparazzi and stalkers to follow on the private lives of celebrities. These address sites are accessible to anyone irrespective of their motives hence posing as a danger to public figures. However, the dynamism of the celebrity aspect has shifted from the old way of only viewing movie stars as the only celebs. For instance, the internet is able to create celebs within little time thanks to social networks like YouTube, Facebook, and twitter6. The sharing and viewing of uploaded videos to a worldwide internet audience makes the individuals become instant celebrities in a matter of minutes. The essence becomes attaining followers in a short time than chase fame for the rest of one’s life. Moreover, the internet serves as a carte blanche for fame-seekers and a speedy avenue for celebs to interact with their fans without engaging with them face to face. This creates a remarkable and safe avenue for fans response and critics on how best to improve their image to better suit their fan base. Beyonce Knowles, how she has maintained her celebrity status Beyonce Knowles Carter, wife to American rapper James Carter (Jay-z), has managed to live a quiet and fulfilled private life away from the prying media eye. Not much of her life’s happenings leak out to the public domain and only exposes a fraction of her life. On the contrary, the media portrayed the controversy surrounding the beauty’s former pop group and their untimely split. .The group split during the start of the twenty first century, which remarkably led to the soaring of their album sales across international music scenes. This is to mean their somehow wrong exposure to the public scenes worked out for the groups sales, as it increases their album proceeds. Moreover, the recently wed-pop idol has managed to conceal the images of her newly born baby with extremely little of her photos circulating the media. She and her husband go to extreme lengths to ensure that they safeguard their privacy. In a remarkable trend, many marriages in Hollywood tend to end, as many celebrities have let the media expose too much of their lives. However, this has not been the case for Beyonce because every thing in their world is top secret creating no loopholes for the media to destroy their lives. Moreover, the media coverage that her first pregnancy received translated in to sky rocketing sales for her albums. They reached platinum levels in 2011 on the billboards. Remarkably, she and her pregnancy were the most searched items on the internet that translated to substantial market potentials for these who advertised alongside her name on the internet. In this regard, Beyonce’s relationship with the media has been unpredictable since the most media coverage that she receives tends to be of service to her. It has helped her in gaining respect from her fans and the public. Ideally, Beyonce has maintained her star status by making sure that her private life remains private without attracting unnecessary critics. In relation to this, her photographs are worth millions in the tabloid market hence creating her value in the celebrity market. Finally, her dirt never seems to get to the limelight because of friends that surround her who understand her need of being introverted. She has maintained her reputation on the media domain because of her way of doing things. The media as a marketing tool for fandom Fandom is a sub cultural aspect composing of the feelings of the fans and followers shared by the many who believe in the same ideology or individual. In this regard, the marketing industry has used fandom and star base of a celebrity or product to brand their image towards profitability7. Essentially, celebrities in the media become the basis to which intense sales may attribute. However, were it not for the publicity created for them by the media, they would have otherwise become irrelevant. The popularity gained after the media has exposed certain aspects in to the public domain becomes the foundation to which a marketer may establish a market8. For instance, an individual popularized by the internet may become a products image promotion due to the popularity they tend to enjoy. It becomes an easier way of product sensitization and awareness in to a highly competitive market. Therefore, fandom may form a basis for marketing due to the multitudes of people that they tend to have as followers. It is easier to market to an already established target group than to a general population. Memorabilia collection as a tool for maintaining fan sociality Memorabilia are forms of souvenir in which their collection stirs up memories of people or places. These items tend to bring close attachment to those in possession of them since they become items of priceless value. For instance, a celebrity may accrue these memoirs during their tours of different cultures across the globe. Most importantly, their display to the public domain through photographic evidence displays the relation and respect for the culture to which the artifact belongs. This helps to create a base between the celebrity and the people of this culture hence cultivating social establishment with them. Sequentially, this reduces the chance of detachment between the two parties hence creating a more reliable fan base. Therefore, it is critical for a public figure to accept these memoirs, as they may improve on their acceptance and eventual brand creation of their stature and names especially when it gets to the public. Conclusion For any celebrity to benefit from the fan culture, certain aspects have to factor. For one, the public figure should be one who enjoys unlimited media following to maintain their status in society. Secondly, the artist and designers should regulate the amount of personal content that they allow the media to cover on them to maintain their reputation and respect in the public eye. Lastly, the image of a celebrity depends on the image created by the media in order to grow their fan ratings or kill their celebrity status. 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