The Growth of Celebrity Culture

            Today, you can’t walk into a grocery store without seeing a line of magazines dedicated to celebrities. We want to know who they’re dating, what they’re wearing, even what time they walk their dog. It’s a phenomenon that has shaped media. You can’t leave the house without hearing a story about Kim Kardashian’s latest Instagram post. There has always been a fascination with celebrities and Hollywood. With more access to celebrities’ lives through social media, the line between what is unattainable starts to blur. With technology rapidly changing, it’s easy to get information like where Taylor Swift likes to eat dinner. With so many people reading these magazines and tuning into E! News every night, it’s no wonder we can’t get away from celebrity news. When something is in demand, it is supplied. We seek out his information through all the different media channels because we want to feel connected to the people we look up to.

            Why is there such a demand to know what celebrities are doing? Why are these shows dedicated to finding out if the gossip is true? Maybe it’s the sheer access we have. Not even with just the magazines and social media, but the power the paparazzi has managed to gain in Hollywood. The Paparazzi has been following celebrities around for decades. They bombard and shout at celebrities hoping to get some sort of reaction that can be turned into a story. It’s an endless cycle, and some celebrities are trying to push back. It’s no debate that this new age of paparazzi is more aggressive than others. They hid in bushes and wait till they can get a clear shot of Justin Bieber naked on his balcony. They push people out of the way, and will say anything to try to get a reaction. Because the demand is so high, it seems like they will do anything to get a picture.

            There is a certain level of “they signed up for this” when it comes to celebrity culture in the way they are both praised and torn down. Celebrities fight back against the paparazzi, like Kendall Jenner, who manages to ignore the hoards of cameras that follow her around. She occasionally flips the finger, and her BFF Cara Delevigne has gone on Twitter rants about feeling like a zoo animal. Even with their pleas the cameras never let up. Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard started a revolution about putting an end to paparazzi pictures of celebrity children. They can't necessarily stop the cameras, but they reached out to gossip sights about not using the unsanctioned photos. And gossip magazines are quick to jump on the train, anything to make celebrities happy. According to an article by AdWeek, People magazine and Just Jared joining Entertainment Tonight in not putting up paparazzi photos of celebrities children. The new editor of People Jess Cagle said they would stop using the photos unless they felt like they needed to. Sure, it may have lasted for a little while, but it seems both sites haven’t really stopped. “In his letter, Cagle said People would still run "sanctioned photos" and in "rare exceptions," unsanctioned ones. On People.com, which has a dedicated Moms & Babies vertical, there are still plenty of paparazzi photos of famous offspring to be found, many of which been posted since Cagle took over as editor” (Bazilian). The paparazzi photos of Kristen Bell with her daughter are still all over the Internet. Not even the pleas from celebrities themselves can stop the demand our society has for celebrity news.  The drive for these pictures is what propels celebrity culture more and more into society. They’re just like us. Eating a salad for lunch. But they aren’t really like us, and it’s the unattainable image they perceive that people chase.

            Getting celebrity dirt is also a lot easier than it used to be. Most gossip sites like to get proof before they post the dirt. Anyone with a camera phone can catch a celebrity at a bad time. In the article from The New Yorker, the author writes about how TMZ has a tip line. Anyone with a celebrity story can call into the tip line. TMZ pays the sources who send them viable information. The access to Hollywood and celebrities has gotten easier, and if they aren’t careful a waiter can record them scarfing down a sandwich for it to be posted online the next day. These gossip sites like TMZ take the job seriously, and act in the way any journalist would. “Indeed, the site has built a deep network of sources, including entertainment lawyers, reality-television stars, adult-film brokers, and court officials, allowing Levin to knock down the walls that guard celebrity life” (Schmidle). They gather and pay these tipsters to get the dirt they want on any celebrity in Hollywood. Anyone with a connection to Hollywood can sell information. Whether it's personal drivers to flight attendants with access to passenger lists. These sources come from all over, and if they have the proof, TMZ will pay them. There is money to be made in the exchange of celebrity information. You can catch a picture of Lindsey Lohan stumbling out of a club, and TMZ will pay you thousands. The supply and demand chain between paparazzi, tipsters, and sites like TMZ drives this celebrity gossip train.

            Overall, we are fascinated and drawn to these mysterious creatures. They become something we both worship and hate. Talking about Britney Spear’s weight gain is a lot easier than dealing with the problems surrounding our lives. In a Huffington Post article, the author writes about the fascination we have with celebrities. “In the public critiquing of such creatures, the American public is able to indulge in its disgruntled adoration—a mixture of jealous and disgust—of the celebrity, hating them for their perceived perfection, beauty and trim bodies, and the endless attention, money, and elegant clothing they receive—yet all the while wishing we were just like them” (Turriago). There is a fine line between love and hate. When we see celebrities attack paparazzi, we shake our heads in disbelief, but could we handle dozens of cameras in our face. We don't understand their lure, but we are drawn to it. It's a cycle of building these celebrities up and then tearing them down. We consumer celebrity gossip everyday, watching their every move, because we look up to these people, but we also love to watch them fail. Whether it’s catching Ray Rice beat his fiancé in an elevator or Jennifer Garner pushing her kids on the swing just before her divorce is announced. We reveal in their success and their failures. There is a demand because we are every fascinated by the importance of celebrities.

Work Cited

Bazilian, Emma. "People Magazine Is Joining Entertainment Tonight in Banning Paparazzi Photos of Celeb Kids." AdWeek. AdWeek.com, 25 Feb. 2015. Web.

Schmidle, Nicholas. "TMZ Redefines Celebrity Dirt." The New Yorker. TheNewYorker.com, 22 Feb. 2016. Web.

Turriago, Nora. "The Dangerous American Obsession: Why Are We So Fascinated With Fame?" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 04 Dec. 2015. Web.