THE METAMORPHOSIS OF CELEBRITY
Celebrity status comes in different forms, drawing on Rojek’s book: Celebrity (2001) he classifies celebrity into three different forms: ascribed, achieved and attributed. I would discuss the three different forms but for the purpose of this essay my focus would be on the first two forms which are mentioned. Who is an Ascribed celebrity? this type of celebrity is ‘predetermined’ that is someone who is a celebrity not by choice but by blood lineage, though the person may choose to add or subtract from their celebrity status by virtue of their voluntary actions but the fact still remains that this person is still an ascribed celebrity, a typical example would be Paris Hilton.
Who is an achieved celebrity? In the words of Rojek; “Achieved celebrity derives from the perceived accomplishments of the individual in open competition” (Rojek, 2001, p18).
These people have in one way or the other stood out and as such has been recognised for their talent or accomplishments. Some examples of this form of celebrity are, Beyonce, Sinatra, Madonna, Notorious B.I.G, P.diddy and Jay Z, these are musicians who have be noted for their accomplishments over the years.
Who are attributed celebrities? Not all celebrities have rare gifts of talents with which they are recognised with; some people acquire the celebrity status from media saturation. Again in Rojek’s words;
“Achieved celebrity is not exclusively a matter of special
talent or skill. In some cases it is largely the result of the
concentrated representation of an individual as noteworthy
or exceptional by cultural intermediaries. When this is so ,
it is attributed celebrity (Rojek, 2001).
In a remarkable way, Rojek thought it wise to categorise a minor group of celebrities, he carved out what he termed as celetoid from attributed celebrity. He defined this group of celebrity as media-generated, compressed, concentrated form of attributed celebrity, examples include, reality show contestants, lottery winners, mistresses these kind of celebrity have 15minutes fame. They have not achieved any spectacular feat to be respected or to earn long term celebrity status, and tabloids understand that it is how they, the tabloids, represent them that the public feel about them.
So far in the essay, not much has not been said but from Rojek’s definition and analysis of celebrity we can see that achieved celebrity has even more apex or types attached to it which makes it more complex compared to that of ascribed celebrity. In Britain today, the achieved celebrity are the category of people who are more talked about by the press, with special focus on attributed celebrity, they have dominated most of the tabloids, like the controversial Susan Boyle, one of the contestant of the most recent Britain’s got talent, she was the focus of attention for a considerable amount of time but recently she is no longer on the headline of the news because of the attributed nature of celebrity, she was just a phase in the celebrity industry and she is classed in the subcategory of achieved celebrity.
One main reason why ascribed celebrity has been taken over by achieved celebrity is because of the media, since achieved celebrity are social constructions, there are thorn between the split personalities that they have to be: the I (veridical self) and the Me (self as seen by others) and this sometimes contradicts each other because the person there are might be totally different from what is portrayed by the media. Even if they represent individualised social types they do so by actively reconciling competing principles- personal identity with social identity, and individualism with conformity. Using Jade Goody as a case study, while she was in the Big brother house she played herself (veridical self) but the media played out a different part of her to the audience thus making people see her as a stupid white girl that was a racist and a trash talker, this eventually played out when she was diagnosed with a terminal cancer, people them saw the soft and motherly side of the lady who was once the black sheep of the media. This is not really applied to the ascribed celebrity as most times they are just their real self because they are not a creation of the media they don’t have to act out for the public.
Another reason for ascribed celebrity been absorbed by achieved celebrity is that the media determines what people desire as a form of entertainment and soft news. Bob Franklin exemplifies this viewpoint when he writes that today, ‘the world of sport or the music are judged “newsworthy” than the reporting of significant issues and events of international standing’. I agree with this statement, as far as stories regarding celebrities are often deemed news items, celebrities are shown in this way in the media, to fulfil a human desire for relationships. Achieved celebrities offer us a chance to escape our own lives; they offer parasocial relationships, interacting with people through televisions, radios, and print. This I believe to be a notable reason as to why we have achieved celebrities dominating our media markets; simply because we want them there.
Also, drawing on Cohen’s media effects theory, the media may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling people what to think about; that is to say that because the media forces attention towards achieved celebrity, people are been influenced by what they hear see or read and as such the image which the media has build up about certain celebrity becomes what is most talked about. For example: the way celebrity magazine portray Madonna as a sex symbol even while ageing, it appeals to women in this category to identify with such celebrity. We can interact with others and have a common ground on the topic of celebrities that we see at the moment, once again fulfilling our need for relationships. Without achieved celebrities the world could seem a very dull place with only the news of events to entertain us with.
Again in the movie industry, one finds that actors (achieved celebrity) are acting out roles of royalty, like the movie title ‘the queen’, the story line was along the death of princess Diana and how the queen handled situation. Helen Mirren portrayed the queen of England the movie. Now we see that not only has ascribed celebrity been replaced, it has now been taken over by the achieved celebrity turning the ascribed celebrity to a character been played.
Even though achieved celebrity has absorbed ascribed celebrity, this essay is not totally ruling out ascribed celebrity from the public eye. Princess Diana was about the last ascribed celebrity who was much a focus of attention from the media and the public before the curtain was drawn. In the days of Princess Diana, people were elated when she smiled at them or gave a hand shake. Looking at the case of Michael Jackson when he met princess Diana In 1988, on his "Bad" tour, Jackson was thrilled to meet Princess Diana. "I met her first at my concert in London," Jackson said in a 1997 interview with Barbara Walters about his introduction to Princess Diana. "She was very kind, very loving, and very sweet" (Abc news, 2009). Michael Jackson who is a well known achieved celebrity was flabbergasted when he met the princess of Wales, it goes to show that ascribed celebrity are still respected but unfortunately are no longer in the spotlight as it were back in the days.
In conclusion, from celebrity gossip magazines like OK to hybrid news and entertainment programs like E news to quality mainstream news programs like CNN, a huge portion of the news is now devoted to reporting the lives of celebrities and it is obvious that the media has a stronghold over us as individual as they have become successful in telling us what to think about, now the media saturation of these celebrity stories of gives even young people the idea that they don’t want to be doctors or lawyers when they grow but they want to be a celebrity. What kind of celebrity are they referring to? Obviously it is the achieved/attributed celebrity, we have being made to see the celebrity industry to be one which is easily penetrable and accessible, that is the; ‘I could be a celebrity’ syndrome. There was a time when we look up to the royal family as our role models but we have changed, according to Len Sherman who writes: “we have forsaken our traditional heroes and replaced them with actors and athletes.... where we once admired people who play and do great things now we admire people who play other people who do great things” (Sherman cited by Cashmore, 2006)
The rise of achieved celebrity culture signifies the democratization of power in society, achieved celebrity, drawn from mass and form of the people reflect the declining lustre and power of ascribed celebrity (Rojek, 200, p.121). That is, before the liberation of the celebrity culture industry, the monarch had the supreme power and was seen as one of the highest forms of power that exists, though still highly respected, achieved celebrity are now comparable to gods in their own right. The underlying truth is that these achieved celebrities have more appeal because they stand for "cool community”, which people easily identify with. I can thus end this essay that ascribed celebrity has been over thrown by achieved celebrity in the West.
REFERENCE
ABC news (2009) Available from: http://diana-remembered.spaces.live.comBlog/cns!2244878A8C9B75DA!5458.entry (Accessed 21st July 2009)
Boorstin, D (1992) The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-events in America. New York: Vintage Books
Cashmore, E (2006) Celebrity/Culture. Oxon: Routledge
Cohen, J. (2001) Defining Identification: A Theoretical Look at the Identification of Audiences with Media Characters. Mass Communication and Society, 4(3), 245-264
Franklin, B (2005) Key Concepts in Journalism Studies, London: Sage publications ltd.
Gamson, J. (1994) Claims to Fame: Celebrity in contemporary America. London: University of California Press.
Graeme, T (2009) Understanding Celebrity. London: Sage publications
Holmes, S. Redmond, S. (2006) (Ed) Framing Celebrity: New directions in Celebrity Culture. London: Routledge.
Lumby, C (1999) Gotcha: Life in a Tabloid World. Australia: Allen and Unwin publications
Rojek, C. (2001) Celebrity. London: Reaktion Books
