DRAFT

Celebrities' Extremely Heavy Influence on Society

According to a study done by He Xiaozhong three out of four children engage in
celebrity worship (Page 2) . Celebrity worship is making a huge impact on our society, but what
truly is it? McCutcheon helped to define celebrity worship by breaking it into three levels:

Comment [RJ1]: Your introduction is

extremely source heavy. I would generally
save that kind of thing for the body
paragraphs. Maybe you can work these
citations in somewhere else so that they
support your argument instead of create it.

entertainment-social, intense-personal, and borderline-pathological(Pages 310-311). These three

stages help to better analyze this new social sensation. Sociologists at the University of North
Carolina believe that celebrity worship has become such a sensation due to the "era of mass
media" (Page 347). But how are these new modern concepts impacting society?
Celebrity worship is described by The Journal of Psychology as, "a form of parasocial
interaction in which individuals become obsessed with one or more celebrities"(Ashe).
McCutcheon expands on this definition by filing celebrity worship into three levels of intensity
known as the "Celebrity Attitude Scale"(Page 309). The first level is entertainment-social which
is when individuals like a celebrity simply because they have the ability to entertain and help the
individual to engage in social interactions. Intense-personal is described as a level of compulsive
or intense feelings when it comes to a celebrity. The most extreme level is referred to as
borderline pathological which occurs when someone expresses unhealthy and unstable thoughts
or actions resulting from celebrity worship(McCutcheon).
According to the authors of "Celebrity Status" social status has been around for
centuries, but our modern celebrity system is different(Kurzman). He claims that mass media is
the prime reason that celebrities have become such a modern phenomenon(Kurzman).
Celebrities are now seen all over the news due to demand by the audience. Kurzman describes
this as a form of capitalism where reputations, audiences, and earnings work to transform

Comment [RJ2]: Youve started almost every

paragraph with a quote from a source. While
sometimes this is a great strategy, over using
it causes it to lose its power some.

individual celebrities into profitable objects(Page 353). In this light, celebrities are no longer
seen as people, but as objects used to generate profit for advertisers and box-offices. The more a
celebrity is in demand, the more media coverage they get. Joshua Gamson agrees in his book
Claims to Fame: Celebrity in Contemporary America that the public can "make people
famous"(Page 39). Gamson claims that we feel overly invested in their lives because we feel
responsible for contributing to a celebrity's fame(Page 40). A study done in Social Psychology
Quarterly helps to prove celebrity influence by examining their effects on random individuals'
social norms. The results showed that celebrities with untarnished links to success can influence
society's reaction to social norms (Page 114). This means that if an individual trusts a celebrity,
they will knowingly or unknowingly behave in a way endorsed by that celebrity. But according
to Alina Tugend the amount of trust we put into celebrities as a society, may be too much.
Tugend also mentions the capitalist concept like Kurzman by stating that we, as fans, "imbue
celebrity with traits they don't have because that's the image they are trying to sell"(Tugend).
Kurzman discusses in her article that if we do not feel personally harmed, we will continue to
forgive a celebrity. She makes claims about Lance Armstrong's drug use and Mike Tyson's rape
conviction. Both of these celebrities still have careers. And although the Social Psychology Study
exempts tarnished celebrities as influential, Kurzman's points show that as a society we do not
really care all that much. These are people who are in the media constantly, making mistakes,
and influencing our society. Society reflects their behavior because we view it as socially
acceptable. Social Pyschology Quarterly states, "Celebrities generally have prestige, and we
know from many studies that prestige makes people special, gives them extra significance and
thereby increases the weight of their opinions"(Page 102). Society is relying on celebrities as role
models, and people to turn to when we don't know what is socially acceptable. This is giving

celebrities so much power. Tugend states as well that even if we "feel let down by
them"(Tugend), we forgive them because "we feel guilty for holding them to such high standards
in the first place"(Tugend). This is a cycle that could be extremely harmful to society. Society
allows celebrities to influence us, and then when they make mistakes we feel guilty for allowing
them this influence.
According to He Xiaozhong, "The principal group of persons presently idol worship
consists of children and young people"(Page 84). Celebrity worship is strongly impacting us. The
study conducted shows that up to 77.3 percent of those in middle school and college partake in
celebrity worship(Page 85). Celebrity worship has in fact been connected to negative correlations
in cognitive factors and overly positive correlations in self-esteem. The findings of The Journal
of Psychology discuss how those with "high scores on the Celebrity Attitude Scale consistently
showed negative correlations with measures of cognitive ability"(McCutcheon). The researchers
believe that those with higher cognitive functions are less inclined to fall for the capitalistic
selling factor of celebrities(319). This shows that partaking in celebrity worship can be
detrimental. Focusing all energy on a celebrity can cause problems with focusing on our own
cognitive health. However Pat MacDonald feels that celebrity obsession has led to a more
positive correlation outward instead of inward, perhaps too positive. MacDonald states, "There is
a constant stream of celebrity news in the media fuelling a celebrity-obsessed society"(Page
147). He discusses how we are placing more value on fame than personal success. He discusses
reality show celebrities in particular and how all the attention goes into boosting self-esteem in a
narcissistic way. MacDonald claims "Young people think they are entitled to fame and will do
anything to achieve it"(Page 147). Another author who investigated reality shows and the
celebrity obsession is Timothy Caulfield who writes for The Chronicle Review. Caulfield

infiltrated an American Idol audition to learn more about "the phenomenon of

celebrity"(Caulfield). He states "celebrity culture has a profound impact on our world, framing
how we think about important issues and even influencing how we view our place in the
world"(Caulfield). Like MacDonald he points out that, "People see becoming a celebrity or
obtaining a celebrity lifestyle as a reasonable and obtainable life goal"(Caulfield).
Celebrity's have an extremely huge impact on our life. They are setting social norms that
are giving society an unrealistic expectations. It is becoming a huge cycle of celebrities living up
to society's high expectations, and society shaping their ideas and morals around these
expectations. Celebrities are seen as perfect, but nobody is perfect. As society grows more and
more into mass media, celebrities have less and less privacy. We know all of their mistakes and
all their moves and we determine what is acceptable and what is not. However, none of this stops
celebrities from continuing to be celebrities. Mass media has also been playing a negative role in
how we react to celebrity decisions. The amount of power celebrities have is overwhelming and
detrimental to society.

Overall, I really love this topic! I am someone who for sure needs a Kardashian
cleanse, so I relate to this topic immensely. I think the only problem here is that youre
trying to hard to synthesize your sources into the paper. Its a lot of other peoples opinions
and not a lot of your own. My suggestion is to keep the sources from making the argument
and have them support your opinions more.