Is Social Media Changing the Way We Think About Celebrity?
Some months ago I wrote about the idea of digital narcissism, and my opinion that the lure of social media wasn’t the satisfaction of a narcissistic urge, as some were saying, so much as it was a response to a need to connect to People Like Us. The digital narcissism angle, as superficially appealing as it is as an explanation, has always struck me as a cheap way to mock the content providers, in much the same way as early users of celphones and blackberries were chided for being self-indulgent (to think that others would want to know all the time what they were doing, and so forth).
A need, I wrote at the time, that Hollywood has single-mindedly attempted not to serve, the better to create a fantasy world for its customers to immerse themselves in. Why, after all, would one want to escape into a world of People Like Us?
I’m not saying we no longer need Escapism – there will always be some need for it. But I think that, at least for a while, there will be less interest in it. The Internet gives us the power to make our lives more meaningful by tapping into People Like Us – perhaps finding ways to derive this deeper meaning from our lives is simply more satisfying than escaping from them.
What I’m wondering now, in the age of TMZ and PerezHilton, is whether the carefully stage-managed world of celebrity is now in for rather a rough ride. Coming off of a nice run of decades of compliant media, eager to run fake celebrity interviews and publish sycophantic cover photos and interviews, the gloves have come off, and a new generation of media has emerged – a media with an appetite for fresh meat.
Lindsay Lohan’s recent troubles are a perfect example – in years past, mainstream media would generally have been satisfied with press releases, interviews with handlers and the promise of an exclusive with a celebrity tearfully speaking about secret pain and the need for ‘privacy in this difficult time’. No longer. Ms. Lohan’s recent troubles have ignited a firestorm of uncomplimentary coverage and very detailed reporting – complete with photos, video and audio, and the messages of handlers have been lost in the blizzard of coverage.
I don’t see how traditional ideas about celebrity can survive social media. And I’m wondering, as we see how unremarkable and unpleasant People Like Them so often are, how we’ll react. And whether People Like Us will seem that much more appealing in comparison.
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I saw a video a while back that was on the set of a Lily Tomlin/Dustin Hoffman film where Lily was having a complete melt down and creative differences with the director. On top of that, at some point (the scene was inside car) Dustin Hoffman farted with a “excuse me” during Lily’s fight.
It was very strange watching this. I kept thinking – do i really want to know the under belly of creative politics between stars and directors? And even more importantly, do i really want to hear Dustin fart out of character?
So it does beg the question as you say, if the pedestal is gone, is there really anything left? Well, maybe art….oh crap, who cares about that?
Good point – the artistic community has chosen the celebrity as a branding vehicle – live and die by it, I suppose. Hopefully, this would encourage more attention on the art. Doubt it, though.
Is it entirely fair to say that the artistic community has ‘chosen’ celebrity as a branding vehicle? I think that ascribes too much power to the artists. It seems celebrity has a lot to do with desire and economics – forces that artists can utilise but not really control, particularly given the mesh of stuff attached to celebrity: fashion, cosmetics, beauty, conspicuous consumption, materialism etc etc.
And yeah, sad as it is, I think the ‘focusing on the art’ thing is optimistic. What really drives people? The power of film, or their desire to be/be with Lindsay Lohan? (okay, perhaps not the best example – you know what I mean though).
I think if you look at who was on the magazine covers ten years ago (no name model types) versus now, there has been an incredible shift in how celebrities create their images. People like Madonna carefully constructed public identities in a manner that is very similar to how an agency create brands. And then they use those brands to extend them in a variety to different ways…..product extensions if you will. All absolutely in my opinion completely controlled.
Ironically, (or maybe not ironically at all) those same celebrities are now finding themselves in the same problematic situations that a lot of corporate brands are. The problem of how to deal with the ever empowered consumer/customer (who have a network of people beside them with an always on digitally connected world), who are determining what brands, including celebrity brands, do or do not stand for.
Ah…where is Andy Warhol when you need him….
Heh – the Globe just put up a post saying that TMZ are launching a TV channel and has been sold to 200 stations across the US. No Canadian takers yet.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070727.wgtTMZ27/BNStory/Technology/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20070727.wgtTMZ27
Yup – I’d heard that they were working on it. Now the real money begins, I guess. BTW, Nav, my bad for using the phrase “artistic community” – what I meant was that in many fields the creative enterprise has chosen the “star” as the way to market and brand the art. Film and TV are the best examples, obviously. It reminds me of the supermodel craze in the 80s and 90s – which led to such out-of-control behaviour and salary demands that the fashion industry more or less shut down on the idea of the celebrity model (there are still some, but many fewer) and put more of their focus back on the designer and the clothing.
As to what drives people, my point was that to some extent, that’s determined by the way the product is marketed. And because Hollywood has deliberately cultivated a star culture, this is what they’ve built. In the beginning they had control over it. When the studio system changed they still maintained pretty close control over the way media presented their product (through the approaches I mention in the post). Now, not so much.