CI 5472 Post 7 - Studying "Celebrity"

Although an otherwise extremely comprehensive, detailed, and useful course text, I feel that Professor Beach fails to address what I believe to be a very important component of media studies - detailed study of celebrities / "celebrity" as a concept. Besides Beach briefly mentioning the "culture of celebrity" as one of the many focuses of media studies in his very first chapter, little discussion / integration of this concept as it specifically relates to our work in the classroom follows throughout the remainder of the text. In their study titled "The role of media figures in adolescent development: relations between autonomy, attachment, and interest in celebrities" which I will refer back to several times throughout this posting, Giles and Maltby argue a similar lack of the detailed study of "celebrity" as they state, "The influence of figures from the mass media on adolescent development has been somewhat neglected in the literature to date (813)." As such, I would like to spend some time discussing how to integrate discussions of celebrity influence on adolescents into our classrooms, a concept which I'm interpreting to raise questions such as:

What is a "celebrity"? What does it mean to be a "celebrity"? What type of power does "celebrity" afford? How am I influenced by what "celebrities" do / say / act / advocate? To what extent is my perception of reality (ideologies, assumptions, motives, values, whatever vocabulary you can come up with as a class!) shaped by what celebrities have done / said / acted / advocated?

But first, I'd like to continue to rationalize why I think studying the "culture of celebrity" is important if we are challenged / questioned by administrators, other teachers, parents, and so on (because let's face it, I'm sure that you can already hear some variation of "Whaaaaat?! Your students / my child is talking about Angelina and Brad in your class?! What are they possibly learning from that?!").

In the very first chapter of his book, Professor Beach rationalizes the inclusion of general media studies into the English curriculum, arguing that students need to understand how the media constructs reality: "Another rationale for studying the media in school has to do with helping students understand and critique the role of media in constructing or mediating reality... Studying media representations of gender, class, and race... helps students recognize that these are social and cultural constructions that are shaped and influenced by media texts" (4). Focusing on the key word "mediate" in Beach's rationale, Giles and Maltby continue to explore in their aforementioned study the degree to which celebrity figures may act as "mediators" / shapers of adolescents' perceptions of the world: "The present study was designed to explore more closely the link between adolescent autonomy and the formation of parasocial relationships with celebrities... In the present study, it was predicted that autonomy would be associated with greater interest in celebrities, indicating a possible switch in idealisation from parents to media figures" (815). At the conclusion of their study, Giles and Maltby discovered that their results beautifully support their original hypothesis: "The results lend support to the hypothesis that emotional autonomy and attachment to celebrities increase during adolescence... as predicted, as parents become deidealised for adolescents, media figures take over some of the functions that parents had fulfilled in childhood" (820). NOTE: For the specifics on data collection and analysis methods used, consult the original study, I have linked to it throughout this post.

In other words, depending on what Giles and Maltby specifically mean by "media figures take over some of the functions that parents had fulfilled in childhood" (they never really clarify), their research may suggest that celebrities play a HUGE role in not only reinforcing, but actually teaching (just as parents do!) ideologies, assumptions, and motives that adolescents integrate into their personal schemas and use to make sense of their world. What is extremely interesting to me about this study is the conclusion that this "mediating / shaping" power may come from adolescents perceiving some kind of relationship with / attachment to celebrity figures. If these findings are indeed accurate, consider this: in addition to the viewer forming a strong relationship with the specific information they choose to identify with / internalize into their schema as their perception of reality (e.g., "You're not beautify if you're not slim"), G&M's research may suggest that the viewer forms an equally strong relationship with who / where they specifically learned it from (e.g., "Angelina Jolie is the definition of beauty; she is white, slim, has large breasts... anything else is NOT beautiful"). In other words, as Giles and Maltby seem to support, I argue that celebrities themselves are EXTREMELY powerful "mediators" of our individual perceptions of reality as they function in part as "face(s)" / material subjects to which we attach /externalize (whether consciously or unconsciously) the ideologies, assumptions, motives, values, and so on that we chose to internalize.

Although adolescents' strong identification with celebrities can cause them to integrate "inaccurate / skewed" perceptions of the world into their personal schema (I take extreme caution how I state this; who am I to say what is the way to live?), I argue that this can work to our advantage as educators. If viewers attach / externalize so much meaning to the specific individuals / celebrities responsible for perpetuating specific ideologies, assumptions, values, and motives, that very celebrity figure can become a subject of inquiry in the classroom. In other words, a celebrity can be treated as a "text" with which to conduct the type of critical inquiry we as educators encourage in our classrooms. By closely examining celebrities, teachers and students can explore questions such as:

What is a "celebrity"? What does it mean to be a "celebrity"? What type of power does "celebrity" afford? How am I influenced by what "celebrities" do / say / advocate? To what extent is my perception of reality shaped by what celebrities have done / said / advocated? And the list goes on and on.

Given this framework...

While poking around the internets (thanks for the noun G.W.), I found an extremely interesting article on MTV's website titled "In the Viral Age of Video, Downloads, and Plummeting CD Sales, What Makes a Star?" by Gil Kaufman. Although by no means scholarly research, Kaufman does a wonderful job of complicating the criteria / standards by which the idea of "celebrity" was conceptualized in the past vs. the present:

"Even if you were the most famous rapper on the planet or the winner of "American Idol," your album might have gotten lost in the shuffle as music fans spent their time downloading free albums... scouring gossip sites for news... dialing up Soulja Boy ringtones, watching bootleg clips on YouTube, buying the latest J. Lo fragrance or trying on some of Gwen's L.A.M.B. clothes. All of which made those artists even more famous (or infamous) and maybe rich, even if it didn't really add up to huge album sales on the Billboard charts, which used to be the main way of separating flavors-of-the-week from the truly mega... So, if the tried-and-true Billboard charts can't really be relied on to tell us who is the hottest artist at any given moment — what can?"

The article then goes on to suggest two criteria that can be applied to any person / phenomena to explore the degree / type of "celebrity" they / it hold (again very anecdotal and subjective, but interesting to consider); impact (number of records sold, dollar amount of records sold, place on the billboard charts, and so on) and popularity (number of "hits," as in YouTube hits, number of blog entries about the subject, number of headlines about the subject, number of Facebook posts about the subject, and so on).

Another anecdotal article that I discovered titled "What Makes a Celebrity a Cult Celebrity" by Darien Peters offers educators two more criteria (Ordinary vs. Cult Celebrity), with which to explore the degree / type of "celebrity" someone / something has attained:

"Whereas being an ordinary celebrity requires success in some mainstream endeavor, being a cult celebrity is more about uniqueness and involves either a kind of genius or a kind of madness or simply a keen ability to attract attention. Typically they are people who are high on charisma and presence, sometimes being outspoken on topics and sometimes doing and saying controversial things. Cult could be used to describe everyone from Frank Zappa to Dame Edna or from Morrissey to Rolf Harris. Usually cult celebrities are amusing distractions from the humdrum business of everyday celebrities and in some cases they provide us with brilliant heroes that very few others share. However, in some cases celebrities go from being cult' in the positive sense to cult' in the more sinister religious or ideological sense. Aleister Crowley, Charles Manson, and L. Ron Hubbard all slid down this slippery slope into infamy."

Although the diction you and your class agree upon to use may differ, my argument remains the same; it may be beneficial to work with your class to generate a clear, commonly understood vocabulary / system by which to explore and analyze 1.) What is a "celebrity"? and 2.) what does it mean to be a "celebrity"?

Then...

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ASSIGNMENT ONE!

You could use this assignment to explore the following question:

What is a "celebrity"? What does it mean to be a "celebrity"?

1.) After you have built a vocabulary / system with your class, place it into a format that can be used as a viewing log.

NOTE ONE : Although I'd like to give you a specific format, it really depends on what you and your class come up with. Although I feel like I'm cutting corners by not being more specific, it really depends on you and your class!

However, just to give you some kind of idea, I'm thinking of something along the lines of a "spectrum" format that looks something like this: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dd429dsq_53hffskcft.

Then, students could insert celebrity names or phenomena (e.g., YouTube clips) along the spectrum based on where students think each falls. For example, the viral "Chocolate Rain" YouTube clip could fall in the lower right corner as it was a "cult video" and generated TONS of views and blog posts vs. money, record sales, and things of that nature.

NOTE TWO - EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: In addition to recording the specific celebrity / phenomenon along the spectrum, require students to write a 2-3 sentence explanation of WHY they selected this specific placement over another for each entry, as well as WHERE (the specific source) they got it from.

2.) Over the course of a few days to a week (again the time is really up to you and your schedule), have your students commit to viewing a form of the media and complete their viewings logs.

NOTE: You could modify this task really any way you'd like. For example, you could open viewing up to ANY form of the media. OR, you could assign one group of students to concentrate on VHI, one group to the specific show Soup, one group to a morning show, one group to scouring YouTube, whatever you wish!)

3.) When the log is complete, have a "master" viewing log projected onto the board. With your students, complete the log by entering specific examples, reasons why students classified them how / where they did, and where they found their information.

4.) Large group discussion; I imagine that this will be the fun AND EXTREMELY random part. Hopefully, you will get some disagreement on where "someone / something" should be placed on the spectrum of the class log. If so, and I imagine you will, you could further analyze with your class where they / it should go, and work to come to some sort of class consensus.

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ASSIGNMENT TWO!

You could use this assignment to explore the following questions:

-What type of power does "celebrity" afford?

-How am I influenced by what "celebrities" do / say / act / advocate?

-To what extent is my perception of reality (ideologies, assumptions, motives, values, and so on) shaped by what celebrities have done / said / acted / advocated?

1.) As a class complete the following statements in writing:

For each category, complete the sentence stems with AT LEAST 3 details per stem. (For example, "I believe a hero is someone who is 1.) selfless, 2.) helps others, and 3.) doesn't back down from a challenge").

I believe a "hero" is someone who...

I believe a "criminal" is someone who...

I believe a "parent" is someone who...

I believe a "student" is someone who...

I believe a "liar" is someone who...

I believe a "brother / sister" is someone who...

I believe a "friend" is someone who...

I believe a "bigot" is someone who...

I believe a "leader" is someone who...

I believe a "terrorist" is someone who...

NOTE: This writing could be done however you want it to be. For example, you could do it in the form of a free write, or a formal writing assignment, it's up to you!

2.) As a class, have everyone share their complete stems. By doing this, you will help students uncover / expose and verbalize their underlying perceptions of what they believe each of these concepts / underlying sets of values "are," why exactly they think so, and where, specifically, they think they learned so. I recommend modeling this step to break the ice and show students how an appropriate response "should" sound (for example, "I believe that being a hero means having the ability to use your 'expert knowledge' to save people when in need. I believe that 'Sully,' the pilot who safely landed the airplane in the Hudson River saving everyone on board, taught me this."

As students are sharing completed stems, record them on a master list to be projected back to the class for the next part of the assignment.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Stress that there are no "right" or "wrong" answers and that everyone's response is valid. You will have to have a classroom culture very open to sharing for this.

3.) For homework...

-For each of their entries, students will then record AT LEAST 1 celebrity who they believe "fits" each description and why they think so, and AT LEAST 1 celebrity who they believe does not "fit" each description and why they think not.

NOTE ONE: This can be actual news they heard about the celebrity in reality (I've heard that Sean Penn is a bad father because...) and / or a character portrayal (Dennis Leary as firefighter Tommy Gavin in Rescue Me is a hero because...).

NOTE TWO: If done AFTER the first assignment I mention, students will have a clear idea of what a celebrity "is" by this time.

4.) As a class, return to the "master" list of the former concepts / completed stems, adding who the group perceives to "fit" into each concept and why, and who the group perceives to not "fit" into and why not.

Then, pose the following questions and discuss with the large group:

To what extent are celebrities responsible for...

-reinforcing our understandings of what "criminals, parents, students..." are?

-teaching us what "criminals, parents, students..." are?

-**reinforcing what we value as negative / positive, good / bad, desirable / undesirable?**

-**actually teaching us what we value as negative / positive, good / bad, desirable / undesirable?**

Although there will of course be no concrete answers, this assignment and discussion will get students thinking about the power celebrities have to not only reinforce the ideologies and assumptions about the world that they have already learned, but actually teach them new ideologies and assumptions to integrate into their schemas.

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ASSIGNMENT 3! INTEGRATING VISUAL LITERACIES

You could use this assignment to explore the following questions:

-How am I influenced by what "celebrities" do / say / act / advocate?

-To what extent is my perception of reality (ideologies, assumptions, motives, values, whatever vocabulary you can come up with as a class!) shaped by what celebrities have done / said / acted / advocated?

Thinking back to Beach's chapters and what we have learned about visual literacies (I'm thinking back to film / photography techniques in particular), closely look at the following advertisements:

For an in class activity, you could split students up into groups of 6, distributing ONE picture to each group. Then, you could have students dissect the advertisements based on 1.) what kinds of camera shots, lenses, lighting, special effects, and anything else from the film techniques chapters you'd like! and 2.) the specific effect(s) each are creating.

Then you could pose questions such as:

-What kind of ideologies, assumptions, motives, and values is your advertisement supporting? How are specific film techniques being used to support this?

For example, the first ad with Anjolina Jolie may be supporting the ideal and assumption that the definition of beauty is white, slim, and so on. The film techniques may support this by showing a close up of her flawless, beautiful white face. Also, you could argue that she is being digitally enhanced to look even MORE beautiful; more beautiful then she probably actually is.

-What kind of ideologies, assumptions, motives, and values is your advertisement challenging? How are specific film techniques being used to support this?

For example, the 3rd and 4th ads of Queen Latifah may challenge the dominant ideology and assumption that the definition of beauty is being white, slim, and so on. The film techniques may challenge this dominant ideology / assumption by showing a close up of her face, which is rather heavy-set, yet still beautiful, in comparison to Angelina's. Also, Queen Latifah is of course an African American, and the close up of her face works to accentuate and beautify her physical features that are unfortunately often associated as "inferior" to white individuals'; her hair, nose, and lips.

For homework, students could find an advertisement utilizing a celebrity and do a similar analysis, identifying AND analyzing...

-What film techniques are present.

-How they contribute to the overall effect(s) of the ad.

-AND how they work to support or challenge dominant ideologies, assumptions, motives, and values.

Thanks for reading!