Celebrities, Fans and Stardom - Essay Example

Celebrities have had a major influence on societal norms, values, perceptions, and trends since the evolution of media in general and the Internet in particular. There is a very strong relationship between stardom and contemporary consumerism and the Hollywood machine. The reason ordinary people establish celebrities as the standards and measure their worth in different aspects with respect to the celebrities originates in the construction of public life. The media in general and the Internet, in particular, has played the role of a catalyst in this process. Although the content is presented in disguise of an ideological or political exchange, yet the idiom is largely determined by the media. “The scheduling of emotions, presentation of self in interpersonal relations and techniques of public impression management, which employ media celebrities to humanize and dramatize them, permeate ordinary social relationships” (Rojek, 2001, p. 10).

Stars attempt to fulfill deeper mythological needs, including ones formerly fulfilled by religion, but they are not successful, at least when the matter is considered in the global context, particularly including the conservative societies of the East. The Internet has played a major role in promoting the star culture. The message of stars’ trying to fulfill the mythological needs including the ones fulfilled by religion is both conveyed indirectly and overtly through the media and the Internet. A potential example of such overt expression is the speech made by the demi-god character of Paris Hilton in the video clip titled “Supernatural - Paris Hilton Scene” available on Youtube.

In this scene,  Paris Hilton says, “fans…worship Lincoln,…Hilton whatever…I’ll take what I can get” (Youtube, 2009), and then she adds further that the fans are crazy to worship celebrities that once worshipped the gods. The term celebrity in the contemporary age retrieves its meaning from the gods’ fall accompanied by the rise of secular societies and democratic governments. Celebrities have gained increased importance over the years as a result of the cultivation of personal style as a remedy for formal democratic equality. There is no doubt that celebrities do have a major influence on society, but to compare their influence with that of religion is completely baseless; religion is so grounded and well-integrated in the fundamentals of society.

Kim Kardashian is one such celebrity who has always maintained her star status. She got engaged to Kris Humphries. The engagement ring worth $2 million has got a lot of attention and her wedding was expected to be nothing less than royal. Her divorce is just as much a public event as her wedding was. Soon after the wedding, the couple entered a divorce battle. “Kris is refusing to accept Kim's deposition - and trying to prove their marriage was a fraud, purely for the purposes of her reality show” (Mail Online, 2012). If that is true, which it is quite likely to be, it shows how stars like Kim Kardashian have revolutionized the public perception of such sacred institutions like marriage and divorce to make them seem so easy to make. Such discursive practices play an important role in the development of the star identity (DeCordova, 1990, p. 12). Such practices also help the celebrities collect memorabilia that works in terms of enhancing the sociality of fans. “[T]he celebrity image is a useful ideological symbol for constructing meaning within the modern western capitalist system” (Meyers, 2009, p. 890). Such events bring the celebrity into the limelight so that he/she gets more attention and remains alive in the public’s memory.

Media fosters fandom as a marketing tool by promoting the celebrity’s image among the consumers. This is achieved by first transforming an individual into a celebrity by providing him/her with opportunities to appear on the screen and display some kind of talent appreciated by the audiences, and then using that celebrity for marketing purposes. A lot of celebrities are appearing in the ads all across the globe these days including Lady Gaga, Paris Hilton, and Aishwarya Rai. The celebrities are made brand ambassadors, so the brand they endorse automatically becomes the choice of their fans as well.