Essay: First Draft

My critical investigation is going to focus on celebrity obsession. I will be investigating on the influences, status and power of celebrities on fans, audience and society. I will be looking closely as whether institutions create celebrity obsession or if the celebrities gain status and power to create their own image. The media is present everywhere we go and in everything we do, we can’t escape the media and we can’t live without it. Celebrities tend to be the most influential people in the media. Due to the institutions involved and once again the image created of them not only through institutions but audience as well. The way in which the media portrays text to us automatically becomes our reality. When texts are released to us by the media on a daily basis it becomes our norm. This is how celebrity obsession begins.

What is a celebrity? A celebrity is someone who is famously recognised in a society or culture. A celebrity is someone who has the quality of being widely honoured and acclaimed. Being a celebrity does not mean having the fame, glamour and lifestyle; its being recognised for something they have done.

A celebrity such as Nikki Graham from Big Brother best known for her temper tantrums was given her own reality TV show after leaving the house, titled Princess Nikki. She was also the 12th most ‘written about’ person of 2006 in the UK, according to a channel 4 poll. Nikki has now become one of the UK’s most talked about celebrity because she is known for her temper tantrums and bubbly personality. She has been constructed by the media to be a celebrity. She now becomes a celebrity, through institutions, advertising and magazines. Her popularity is not only driven by institutions but by audiences to. The more we see celebrities through the media, the more we want to see them and our demand increases for them. This gives them their celebrity image. It is said that “A star is an image not a real person that is constructed out of a range of material for e.g. advertising and magazines etc.

A celebrity image is not just his or her texts, but the promotion of those texts, public appearances, interviews and biographies. Their image comes from what people say or write about him/her. Not only do celebrities make themselves recognized through promotion, public appearances and websites but also through what the audience thinks of them through negative and positive criticism. For instance on YouTube audiences have the choice to comment on a video and give there feed back.
Justin Beiber a talented boy discovered first by fans on YouTube then Usher a well known RnB singer. He is now one of the youngest millionaire musicians. A subscriber on YouTube commented “I like Justin because he has the world looking at him and he is not in drugs or partying like insane. He has a very supportive mom. Congrats Justin and stay humble as you are:” Comments from these fans generate celebrity status and popularity.

We have become infatuated with celebrities in today’s world that the number of people we know in the ‘artificial world’ – actors, singers etc is much larger than the number of people we know in the real world. People feel as if they know a celebrity because of the way they are portrayed to us on TV. We believe that we know these celebrities because they have become a part of our everyday lives through the media. Were drawn to know more about celebrities because of a kind of personal connection we may feel with them; the relationship we have with a celebrity is easier than many of our real life relationships. Yet, our connection to a celebrity can bring us closer to those around us.
Not only do we love celebrities, but many of us want to be celebrities. Our culture has emphasized the importance of fame, and many people are desperate for it. We think it is a quick fix to our lives, and that when were discovered; all our dreams come true. Programme such as x factor and Britain’s Got Talent

We feel a personal relationship with these celebrities because we may be able to relate with their life’s in some way for instance when Rhianna was domestically abused by her ex boyfriend Chris Brown many women and men were able to relate to Rhianna and Chris as they may have been going through the same issue. Chris disclosed in the Tyra Bank Show in 2007 that “some people, their families go through domestic violence and stuff like that. I don’t want to mention the persons name but there was somebody who hurt my mum, me having to deal with that from the age of 7 all the way through to 13, me seeing that and being visually abused by it – it affected me.” Many people feel connected to Chris Brown even though what he has done is remarkably wrong, but many abusers may have gone though the same thing as kids. Also many abused woman felt connected to Rhianna as they have also faced domestic violence. Rhianna has influenced many women to speak out instead of keeping silent. Her advise to young girls affected by domestic violence is “don’t react of off love forget love, come out the situation and look at it third person of what it really is love is blind”.

Our relationship with them can get complicated, because we might feel an illusory intimacy with not only the star but there character too. The characters of shows such as Friends become incredibly familiar because they are with us all the time. Jennifer Aniston said that when Friends was a prime time show, people on streets would approach her and yell at her for something disagreeable her character Rachel did. In the media saturated world the difference between reality and media representations, becomes blurred to us.

The power of celebrities to move and change the world, events, political views and fundraising campaigns has threatened institutions. Technological and media changes have happened so quickly that it has given birth to our celebrity culture in a short period of time.

Many celebrities in the media landscape are seen as role models, for example Oprah Winfrey is a television host, actress, writer and producer and has also been ranked the richest African American of the 20th century. To some Oprah is the most influential woman in the world. In the 2008 presidential election in the US, Oprah was publicly authorized to a political candidate for the first time, hosting a fundraiser for Barack Obama and appearing with him at campaign events. Barack Obama has used Oprah as his key to the media landscape as she is highly recognised by the audiences that Barack was targeting. Oprah is a role model who inspires many so her interest in Barack will therefore lead to an increase in his popularity. It is controversially believed that her support was crucial to him winning the Democratic nomination and the presidency itself. This goes to show how celebrities help other celebrities, generate a fan base, which then leads to obsession as people become intrigued with them and more involved in what they do.

This could be linked with the parasocial theory this is when one party knows a great deal about the other but the other does not. People seek out media content because they are motivated by peoples in this case celebrities goals, needs, desires or preferences.

The mass media were once thought of as separate, as reflecting society , as modern, the media showed us how society was, now society and the mass media are so closely connected that society has become subsumed within the mass media; society and the media has merged together to show us how we should live. “We only accept reality through TV and other simulacra”, many of us believe that what the media portrays to us is how we do live life- it’s our reality. So because celebrities are living the ‘glamorous’ lifestyle we should also do the same. When in reality the media texts are not ‘real’.

My Super Sweet 16 is an MTV reality series documenting the lives of teenagers who usually have wealthy parents that throw huge celebrations of their 16th, 18th and 21st birthday. They tend to imitate celebrities or try to be a celebrity. The daily mail criticized “In an age of celebrity, where anyone desperate and rich enough can get their 15 minutes of fame, the series is a depressing indictment of our next generation’s goals and aspirations”. The crippling excesses of fame and capitalism that have come to symbolise our society. The rise of the relationship between people that is mediated by image is found in the emptiness of a celebrity, people will do anything to become a celebrity. By not doing much to become a celebrity, it makes audiences feel closer to them; we can become a celebrity. This generates celebrity obsession because celebrities provide us with false representations of life and ultimately become the reality of our everyday lives.

The direct communication channel between artist and fans means that the artists have much more control over material that is released to the public, and ultimately more control over the image they convey. A number of artist now promote themselves through websites such as MySpace or Twitter, they often release snippets of there tracks, post pictures and often update statuses to keep fans informed of what they are currently doing. The idea that artist releases their material to the public they have some control on how people react to them or how they are represented to their fans.

“Since the media are more or less omnipresent in all our lives, this means we are all influenced to some extent by what we view, listen to and read. Celebrities tend to be the most influential people in the media. They are constantly being followed by paparazzi and on the front covers of magazines and newspapers. This makes us some what involved in the celebrities’ life through what we read about them and how they are pictured. Teenagers are generally influenced by celebrities either positively or negatively. Institutions use celebrities to advertise their products and to influence young adults especially girls to focus on their appearance. Heat magazine has pages such as ‘star styles find it’, ‘star stalker’ and ‘one week for hot look’, Heat know what readers want and that is to have an ideal image of a celebrity. So for readers to look like their idol or to have the same clothing as a celebrity, they start believing that they are a celebrity. The Sun has a page called ‘Bizarre’ that gives an insight on celebrity lifestyle and gossip on a daily basis.

The media industry and institutions have the power of how an image is portrayed to us. They have the ability to make something bad look exceptionally good or vice versa. Rhianna’s video ‘Rude Boy’ has a negative influence on girls her lyrics “come here rude boy, boy is you big enough take it, take it” has sexual connotations and could influence to take part in sexual activities. Even though many of us may not agree with her lyrics, what she says does not effect how we feel towards her, yet she still remains popular with the audience and fans. Her appearance on mass media text such as the X Factor and on the covers of magazines makes her remarkably popular in audience, the way she is portrayed in each text, reflects a different portrayal of her. Wish is why the obsession towards her remains the same.

Justin Beiber movie trailer has inspired the youth to be who they want to be and never give up. Being an ordinary kid who does normal teenage things, whose fame was found through YouTube has been an inspiration. A fan comments ‘he came from a small town, he’s an inspiration he gives us hope”. The trailer emphasizes that you should never give up, you can always be who you want to be, never give up and should ‘never say never’. Many young people see Justin as a role model as he was once a normal kid, but grew to fame at such a young age. The trailer quotes ‘they said it would never happen but you never stop believing.

It can be seen that celebrity obsession starts from the way celebrities are portrayed to us in the media