"The Tomb Raider star's luscious lips and flawless skin..."

To what extent does the representation of celebrities affect teenage girls (looking particularly at shows such as "Britain's Next Top Model" and "Extreme Skinny Celebrities")?

"There is an almost universal preference for the skinny figure in representations of female fashion models”1. Magazines, TV adverts, films are all overwhelmed by emaciated celebrities "creating an image dominating culture with no real reference to the real world"2. Although the "skinny figure"3 is promoted by the media today imposing teenage girls to live up to the ideal thinness, this was not always the case. In the early twentieth century, the desired body image was that which reflected a feminine body with the ability to bear children. The 1940s and 1950s exemplified the curvaceous and voluptuous ideal through the female icons of the time, such as Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Jane Russell. However, the 1960s saw a shift and with the likes of fashion icon Twiggy, the ideals were replaced from 'voluptuous' to 'very thin'. The trend stayed consistent till today as the media has bombarded teenage girls with "photographs in magazines of perfectly toned, tanned, made-up, and airbrushed women that portray a difficult-to-attain — if not impossible — standard of beauty"4 making it the norm for all teenage girls.
"Celebrities act to fulfil our own dreams of autonomy and dreams of intimacy”5. We as the audience desire to be like our most admired celebrities, hence the reason why we try to match up to them forming an artificial relationship that we believe is true. We presumably like to think that we have some sort of relationship with our ideal celebrities. This explains why many teenage girls go to such extents to match up to their ideal celebrities as the relationship evokes the need to be like them. Even more, "The media portrayal and construction of celebrities shapes the way in which audience understand and make sense of the social world"6 .The audience perceive the social world to be constructed based upon the celebrities. The reason for this maybe that the media have plagued the audiences of celebrity culture, which makes the audience believe that this is the ideal or the norm. The mass media is an example of the hypodermic syringe that has the "power" to inject certain hegemonic ideologies through various different mediums into their audiences. This shows that the extent to which celebrities influence teenage girls is through the various mediums they utilise to receive information, which reflects these dominant ideologies of celebrity culture. For example, the TV program “Extreme skinny celebrities”, states that "65% of [females] have been on at least 5 diets…92% of you are unhappy with your body [and] celebrities being a source of pressure."7 This is an example of the Hypodermic syringe model as the dominating values of the celebrity culture of being thin are being absorbed by the teenage girls and as a result they are striving to achieve or at least match up to the celebrities. Another example of the hypodermic syringe model is were "Silk Cut is using the terminology 'super slim' to make the link between smoking their product and losing weight,"8 also "designer Jean Paul Gaultier …sending models down the catwalk in Paris with lit cigarettes."9 This is merely fuelling vulnerable teenage girls into adopting certain habits in order to obtain the ideal form. Jean Paul Gaultier, a famous designer, would have a heavy influence on teenage girls, as by using cigarettes as an accessory for his models, teenage girls would assume that smoking in the new trend, which they are quite likely to take on with the influence of the famous designer.

Most studies of the body image support the argument that “the celebrity is a voice above others, a voice that is channelled into the media systems as being legitimately significant”10. The stress is upon what the celebrities consider as important, this is because the people themselves are striving at anything related to celebrities giving significance only to things that have a celebrity encounter. Through this, we can examine the power celebrities’ posses, questioning the cultural forces behind our need to become endlessly implicated with the creation and collapse of celebrities. Magazines such as Heat, which are sub labelled as “The UK’s most famous celebrity brand”[1] feature sections such as celebrity news, through which the institution is able to encode information for the consumers to decode. They do not “simply reflect, they provide the symbols, images, ideas and frames that constitute power itself”11– the institution is able to “create some of the forms by which power operates”12. The symbols created by the institution stimulate power and regenerate dominant ideologies, which are then watered down into the consumers. For example, one edition of the Heat magazine captioned: “The return of the skinny celeb”. The caption encodes the cultural capital of celebrities, essentially evoking the dominant ideologies of being skinny, which is then diluted into the consumers, in this case teenage girls. As celebrities constitute power, they are able to form the basis of their beliefs and values through an organised system, which is then voiced in the magazine. This shapes the audiences’ thoughts as the celebrities have the power to inject their hegemonic ideologies through various different mediums such as Heat magazine, into their audiences - teenage girls and justify their control as "legitimately significant"13.

Some film studies scholars such as Richard Dyer have also argued that celebrities have a prominent influence over audiences, their "privileged position in the definition of social roles and types,"14 has influenced people’s expectations on how they or others should behave. Audiences are reluctant to see the real accomplishments of the celebrity and instead find pleasure in knowing their secrets revealed in gossip filled magazines. This again allows celebrities to take control as they are able to manipulate what is let out to the audiences giving form to their “artificial behaviour”15. Less stress is placed upon what their real accomplishments are or what they really are famous for. The actual value placed on celebrities is how much coverage they receive in the media - their visibility both on and off screen. This eventually leads to consumerism, where receiving more information about their personal lives and obtaining material goods advertised by them is seen as essential. For example, in 1960 when fashion model Twiggy set the trends of the “gaunt look”16, the influence lead to teenage girls “vomiting to control their weight.”17 In this sense, the celebrity is able to blur the authenticity of information released to the audiences and stimulate belief systems in their interest. Therefore, “The greatness of the celebrity is… in essence…the ideal representation of the triumph of the masses”18 as for some, the celebrity provides the language, which gives a voice to our desires and reflects the realities and reveries of fame.

Jackie Stacey, a cinematic theorist who takes the reverse view of Laura Mulvey’s male gaze (men gazing at women) and examines the female gaze where females gaze upon female celebrities. Stacey argues, “The distance between the spectator and her ideal produces a kind of longing which offers fantasies of transformed identities.”19 This helps us in understanding why many teenage girls are affected by celebrities, as female celebrities offer the ideal feminine appearance that teenage girls desire. For example, Girlguiding UK surveyed over one thousand girls about their attitudes and issues that affect them. The survey revealed that “body image, bullying and cosmetic surgery”20 ranked the highest in terms of the issues affecting them. Furthermore, the impact of “airbrushing”21 was brought to light as digitally manipulated images in celebrity magazines disguised the actual reality and swayed girls into pursuing “quick fix cosmetic surgery like the celebs.”22 The survey projects the attitudes of discontented girls who feel dejected by their appearance and their apprehension to acquire the ideal form. By having constant exposure to certain media texts such as celebrity magazines and TV programs may exacerbate the affects on teenage girls by distorting their view of the ideal image. However, these texts also give teenage girls a purpose of personal relationships and personal identity. Personal identity and relationship is achieved by indulging into celebrity magazines or TV programs, whereby the spectator is able to identify similarities and differences between them and their ideal. The differences allow the audience to dispel into a world of reveries where the possibility lies of their desires being fulfilled, “on the other hand, they value similarity for enabling them to recognize qualities they already have.”23

However, finding this personal identity and relationship with their ideal celebrities is what causes issues that affect the teenage girls as they yearn to acquire, or, allow themselves to be enthralled by celebrity texts such as, magazines. For example, the teen magazine Bliss, surveyed two thousand girls regarding their body image, which found that “68%...desire to acquire a “perfect” celebrity body”24. This accentuates the fact that the way in which celebrities are represented has a major affect on teenage girls. An example is the newspaper headlines shown in the “Extreme Skinny Celebrities” show, where the program consists of various different newspaper headlines such as "eat or you will die"25 and "Emaciated Lindsey Lohan collapses."26 Such headlines create what Cohen defines as a moral panic, as they generate hype about eating disorders amongst parents and the effect it will have on teenage girls who see them as role models, ultimately leading to a moral panic in society. The program also constitutes to Mary-Kate Olsen and her eating disorders as there are several shots taken where the focus is on her anorexic body. In one shot, the camera zooms into the photograph and imposes our attention to her skeletal figure. In addition to this, the shot of the headline "Olsen Anorexic" creates a moral panic as it threatens the health of teenage girls in our society taking in account that Mary-Kate Olsen is also a teenage girl herself.

To conclude, it is comprehendible that the extent to which the representations of celebrities affect teenage girls is huge as “being underweight is considered the norm”[2]. Through various different mediums such as celebrity magazines and TV programs that distort what is real and what is simply a reverie, the celebrities are able to inject their hegemonic values into the teenage girls. The indulgence or inability to resist to certain media texts that allow us to form a personal relationship with our ideals has taken away the reason to why we call them celebrities in the first place. Rather than appreciating their accomplishments, we grasp to be “styled or accessorized in the same way that famous people are.”27 Celebrities will always affect teenage girls, as teenage girls will always gaze upon them as individuals who possess what they plead with the ability to create a “giant stimulation of reality”28.

Word count 1806

Bibliography: Work Cited

Books:

Bennett, Petter and Slater, Jerry and Wall, Peter (2006): The Essential Introduction. Oxen: Routledge.
Cashmore, Ellis (2006): Celebrity/culture. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Evans, Jessica and Hesmondhalgh, David (2005): Understanding Media: Inside Celebrity. Berkshire, England: Open University Press.
Holmes, Su and Redmond, Sean (2006): Framing Celebrity. Ambingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Laughey, Dan (2009): Media studies Theory and Approaches. Herts: Kamera Books.
Lewis, A. Lisa (1992): Adoring Audience- Fan Culture and Popular Media. London: Routledge.
Marshall, P. David (1997): Celebrity and Power: Fame in contemporary culture. Minneapolis, USA: university of Minnesota Press.
Soloman, Michael (2006) Principles of Marketing: AND Consumer Behaviour, a European Perspective. Upper Saddle River: Financial Times/ Prentice Hall.
Steven, Peter (2003): The No-Nonsense Guide to Global Media. Oxford: New Internationalist Publications Ltd.
Wall, Peter (2007): Media Studies for AQA GCSE. Hammersmith, London: Harper Collins Publishers.

Internet:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/20629/richard_dyers_theory_of_movie_stars.html?cat=4
http://www.frankwbaker.com/kids_media_celebrity.htm
http://www.greatmagazines.co.uk/women/heat-magazine.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/nov/03/girls-attitudes-body-image-dieting-guiding
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/jan/05/pressandpublishing.medicineandhealth
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/tobacco-firms-target-teenage-girls-with-super-slim-products-cigarettes-966237.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/doctors-demand-action-on-anorexia-websites-1789424.html
http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/communication/henderson.html
http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/communication/henderson.html

Moving image text:

http://www.livingtv.co.uk/video/celebrity/extreme-skinny-celebs-2-ep1.php

Work Consulted

Books:

Abrams, Nathan and Bell, Ian and Udris,Jan (2001): Studying Film, New York.
Bernink, Mieke and Cook, Pam (1999): The Cinema Book, 2nd edition. London: British Film Institute.
Creeber, Glen (2004): Fifty Key Television Programmes. London: Hodder Headline group.
Creeber, Glen and Millier, Tom (2008): The Television Genre Book. London: British Film Institute.

Internet:

http://books.google.com/books?id=MFqa52fC8qUC&pg=PA157&dq=celebrity+influences+on+teenage+girls&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html
http://dspace.library.uvic.ca:8080/dspace/handle/1828/927
http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=228557&direct=1
http://smu.edu/ecenter/discourse/Teens.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/20/1984080.htm
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/sid9901.html
http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/3/1/0/3/p231036_index.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/179765/how_celebrities_influence_teenagers.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1196636/Lipstick-lesbians-How-kiss-sparked-teenage-trend-disturb-parent.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/03/fashion-models-charity-work
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WB2-4V88FJ7-2&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1138697377&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=0615656ce4a390a86ec4046ccbce7109
http://www.sundaystandard.info/news/news_item.php?NewsID=6398&GroupID=2
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6012322/Teenagers-most-influenced-by-celebrities.html




1 Laughey, D (2009).
2 http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/communication/henderson.html
3 Laughey, D (2009).
4 http://www.frankwbaker.com/kids_media_celebrity.htm
5 Lewis, L (1992).P.17.
6 Evans, J and Hesmondhalgh, D (2005).P.14.
7 http://www.livingtv.co.uk/video/celebrity/extreme-skinny-celebs-2-ep1.php
8 http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/tobacco-firms-target-teenage-girls-with-super-slim-products-cigarettes-966237.html)
9 Ibid
10 Marshall,D (1997). Preface.P.10.
11 http://www.greatmagazines.co.uk/women/heat-magazine.html
12 Ibid
13 Marshall, D (1997). Preface. P.10.
14 http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/20629/richard_dyers_theory_of_movie_stars.html?cat=4
15 Gamson, J (1994). P.177.
16 Napoleon, A (2003). P.26.
17 Ibid
18 Marshall, D(1997)
19 Stacey, J (1994). P. 152.
20 http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/nov/03/girls-attitudes-body-image-dieting-guiding
21 Ibid
22 Ibid
23 http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/jan/05/pressandpublishing.medicineandhealth
24 http://www.livingtv.co.uk/video/celebrity/extreme-skinny-celebs-2-ep1.php
25 Ibid
26 http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/doctors-demand-action-on-anorexia-websites-1789424.html
27 Holmes, Su and Redmond, Sean (2006)
28 (http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/communication/henderson.html)

MEST 4: XMAS TASK 6

[Introduction && First Paragraph]

To what extent does the representation of celebrities effect teenage girls? (looking particularly at shows such as "Britain's Next Top Model" and "Extreme Skinny Celebrities" )

Introduction:

"There is an almost universal preference for the skinny figure in representations of female fashion models" [1] (2009). Magazines, TV adverts, films are all overwhelmed by skinny celebrities "creating an image dominating culture with no real reference to the real world" [2]. Although the "skinny figure" is promoted by the media today imposing teenage girls to live up to the ideal thinness, this was not always the case. In the early twentieth century, the desired body image was that which reflected a feminine body with the ability to bear children. The 1940s and 1950s exemplified the curvaceous and voluptuous ideal through the female icons of the time, such as: Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Jane Russell. However, the 1960s saw a shift and with the likes of fashion icon Twiggy, the ideals were replaced from 'voluptuous' to 'very thin'. The trend stayed consistent till today as the media has bombarded teenage girls with "photographs in magazines of perfectly toned, tanned, made-up, and airbrushed women that portray a difficult-to-attain — if not impossible — standard of beauty" [3] making it the norm for all teenage girls.

First Section:

We as the audience desire to be like our most admired celebrities, hence the reason why we try to match up to them forming an artificial relationship which we believe is true. "Celebrities act to fulfil our own dreams of autonomy and dreams of intimacy"[4], where we presumably like to think that we have some sort of relationship with our ideal celebrities. This explains why many teenage girls go to such extents to match up to their ideal celebrities as the relationship evokes the need to be like them. Even more," The media portrayal and construction of celebrities shape the way in which audience understand and make sense of the social world"[5]. The audience perceive the social world to be constructed based upon the celebrities. The reason for this maybe that the media have plagued the audiences of celebrity culture, which makes the audience believe that this is the ideal or the norm. The mass media is an example of the hypodermic syringe that has the "power" to inject certain hegemonic ideologies through various different mediums into their audiences. This shows that the extent to which teenage girls are influenced by celebrities is through the various mediums they utilise to receive information, which reflects these dominant ideologies of celebrity culture. For example, the TV programme “Extreme skinny celebrities”, states that "65% of you have been on at least 5 diets", "92% of you are unhappy with your body" and "celebrities being a source of pressure." This is an example of the Hypodermic syringe model as the dominating values of the celebrity culture of being thin are being absorbed by the teenage girls and as a result they are striving to achieve or at least match up to the celebrities.

Most studies of the body image support the argument that “the celebrity is a voice above others, a voice that is channelled into the media systems as being legitimately significant" [6]. The stress is upon what the celebrities consider as important, this is because the people themselves are striving at anything related to celebrities giving significance only to things that have a celebrity encounter. Through this we can examine the power celebrities’ posses, questioning the cultural forces behind our need to become endlessly implicated with the construction and collapse of celebrities. Magazines such as “Heat” that are sub labelled as “The UK’s most famous celebrity brand” feature sections such as “celebrity news”, through which the institution is able to encode information for the consumers to decode. They do not “simply reflect, they provide the symbols, images, ideas and frames that constitute power itself” – the institution is able to “create some of the forms by which power operates” [7]. The symbols created by the institution stimulate power and regenerate dominant ideologies, which are then watered down into the consumers. For example, one edition of the Heat magazine captioned “the return of the skinny celeb”. The caption encodes the cultural capital of celebrities -power, essentially evoking the dominant ideologies of being skinny, which is then diluted into the consumers, in this case teenage girls. As celebrities constitute power, their dominating ideologies are being voiced in the magazine, showing that they have the power to inject their hegemonic ideologies through various different mediums such as Heat magazine, into their audiences - teenage girls as being "legitimately significant" [8].

Bibliography:

[1] Laughey, Dan (2009): Media studies Theory and Approaches. Herts: Kamera Books.

[2] (http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/communication/henderson.html)

[3] (http://www.frankwbaker.com/kids_media_celebrity.htm)

[4] Lewis, A. Lisa (1992): Adoring Audience- Fan Culture and Popular Media. London: Routledge

[5] Evans, Jessica and Hesmondhalgh, David (2005): Understanding Media: Inside Celebrity. Berkshire, England: Open University Press.

[6] Marshall, P. David (1997): Celebrity and Power: Fame in contemporary culture. Minneapolis, USA: university of Minnesota Press.

[7] Steven, Peter (2003): The No-Nonsense Guide to Global Media. Oxford: New Internationalist Publications Ltd.

[8]Marshall, P. David (1997): Celebrity and Power: Fame in contemporary culture. Minneapolis, USA: university of Minnesota Press.

MEST 4: XMAS TASK 5

Essay Plan

Section 1: Introduction and historical over view


In the first section, I will introduce what my critical investigation is and establish my main focus on the representation of celebrities, body image and health issues and how the influence has changed over time amongst teenage girls. I will also summarise and give a clear over view of my historical context research so that the shift in celebrity influence over health issues and body image is made distinguishable. (G, R, H)

Section 2: Relationship between celebrities and audiences

In the second section I will be attempting to explain the relationship between celebrities and the audience. I will also introduce some theories such as the “Hypodermic syringe model” and “Hegemony” and use it to explain how the audience take in the information distributed by the mass media. This way I will be able to explain how the mass media is a medium which channels dominant ideologies of the celebrity culture into teenage girls making it the norm. This section will also provide examples to back up my investigation. (Th, A, I)

MEST 4: XMAS TASK 4

.*.*.Additional Web Research.*.*.

• "To what extent has the media-generated celebrity culture contributed to what French sociologist Jean Baudrillard has characterized as a culture dominated by “simulacra”—that is, by images with no real reference to the real world? Are we then left, in this image dominated culture, to a world that is itself but a giant simulation of reality? "

- Media and the Rise of Celebrity Culture (http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/communication/henderson.html)

This article relates to my case study as it provides the basic understanding of how and why the initial idea of "celebrity" formed and managed to have a world wide influence.

• "Even health advice is provided through stories about celebrities’ encounters with illness and their recoveries."

- Celebrities and Newsworthiness

(http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=228557&direct=1)

The quote above is prominent to my case study as it refers to the main focus of my study and brings it together to explain why teenagers are influenced by celebrities in particular to health issues

• "...adolescents’ celebrity worship is associated with, materialistic values, self-esteem as well as life satisfaction."

- Media, Celebrities, and Fans: An Examination of Celebrity Worship among Adolescents (http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/3/1/0/3/p231036_index.html)

I have found through my additional web research a similar study to that of mine, where the individual has carried out their own primary research in order find out the reasons behind why teenagers strongly associate themselves with celebrities. Also looking at the extent to where they are seen to 'worship' them.

• "The enormous modern appetite for celebrity news...is a guarantee that attention will then be paid to a worthy cause."
  

-Top models swap charity parties for gritty realities (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/03/fashion-models-charity-work)

The article above gives some explanation to why celebrities have such a major influence on peoples' lives. This is because the people themselves are striving at anything related to celebrities giving significance only to things that have an encounter with celebrities.

• "A teenage girl will see hunting boyfriends and beautifying as a norm; it is argued indeed that these are transcribed as their sole purposes in life."

• "The teenage girl has therefore been heavily stereotyped by the teenage magazine industry, and her interpretation of the codes and conventions used in the magazine will depend on her personal knowledge of this culture and society."
  

-Semiotics Analysis of Teenage Magazine Front Covers (http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/sid9901.html)

This site gives various different examples of magazine covers and their attempts to channel teenage girls into buying their products. The site also shows that the teenage girls are oblivious to the stereotypical codes and conventions used to prompt them to buy the magazine.

• "Young girls are constantly presented with photographs in magazines of perfectly toned, tanned, made-up, and airbrushed women that portray a difficult-to-attain — if not impossible — standard of beauty."
  

- Help Your Kids See Through the Media-peddled Culture of Celebrity (http://www.frankwbaker.com/kids_media_celebrity.htm)

This article projects a rational argument of young girls feeling pressured and depressed because they cannot meet the level of perfection they are imposed to. This relates to areas such as health issues - body image, diets, etc.

• "The Tomb Raider star's luscious lips and flawless skin..."
  

- Angelina is named beauty icon of the decade (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/angelina-is-named-beauty-icon-of-the-decade-1852575.html)

I found the article above quite provoking as the language used in the text such as "flawless skin" and "luscious lips" immediately generates the need to be like the celebrity in the reader.

• "Silk Cut is using the terminology 'super slim' to make the link between smoking their product and losing weight,"

• "...designer Jean Paul Gaultier went one better in May, sending models down the catwalk in Paris with lit cigarettes."

-

Tobacco firms target teenage girls with 'super slim' products cigarettes (http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/tobacco-firms-target-teenage-girls-with-super-slim-products-cigarettes-966237.html)

The article above and the quotes taken from the article present teenage girls to be vulnerable and victims of the clever manipulation schemes of such big brands. Also the ignorance of major personalities such as Jean Paul Gaultier has a heavy influence on teenagers as JPG uses cigarettes as an accessory for the model, likewise teenage girls would associate a smoking as an accessory or a trend.

• "For some, stars provide the language and the means to understand our own selves better—our desires for fame, our views of our own (un)successful lives, our moral and social values—and create a common ground for us, while other areas of our fast-paced modern world that once composed a common ground seem to be slipping away."
• "while current celebrity culture is a new phenomenon, fame itself has always been manifest in Western society."

- Celebrity Culture (http://www.iasc-culture.org/HHR_Archives/Celebrity/7.1LBibliography.pdf)

MEST 4: XMAS TASK 2

.*.*.Additional Reading.*.*.

• "The media don’t simply reflect , they provide the symbols, images, ideas and frames that constitute power itself – the dominant media create some of the forms by which power operates”

- By Bennett, Petter and Slater, Jerry and Wall, Peter (2006): The Essential Introduction. Oxen: Routledge

This quote illustrates that the mass media is an example of the hypodermic syringe that has the "power" to inject certain hegemonic ideologies through various different mediums into their audiences. This allows me to understand that the extent to which teenage girls are influenced by celebrities is through the various mediums they utilise to recieve information which reflects the dominant ideologies of celebrity culture.

• "Celebrities act to fulfill our own dreams of autonomy and dreams of intimacy."

- Lewis, A. Lisa (1992): Adoring Audience- Fan Culture and Popular Media. London: Routledge

We as the audienec desire to be like our most admired celebrities, hence the reason why we try to match up to them which forms an artificial relationship, which we presume to be true as we like to think that we have some sort of relationship with our ideal celebrities. This explains why many teenage girls go to such extents to match up to their ideal celebrities.

• "Marshall Mcluhan dubbed the mass media 'an extension of our senses', he meant that the sheer speed of contemporary media channels reflects the speed of our senses in face to face communication. The media rarely 'see' by accident and never without interest, although it is often known to 'cover its tracks' by allowing reportage and 'realise' to be casually confused with reality."
  

- By Bennett, Petter and Slater, Jerry and Wall, Peter (2006): The Essential Introduction. Oxen: Routledge

• "The media portrayal and construction of celebrities shape the way in which audience understand and make sense of the social world."

- Evans, Jessica and Hesmondhalgh, David (2005): Understanding Media: Inside Celebrity. Berkshire, England: Open University Press

From this quote I can gather that the audience perceive the social world to be constructed based upon the celebrities. The reason for this maybe that the media have overwhelmed the audiences of celebrity lifestyles, which makes the audience believe that it is the ideal or norm.

• "Also interesting is the reason for the extravagant value we attach to the lives of public figures whose actual accomplishments may be limited, but whose visibility is extensive."

- Cashmore, Ellis (2006): Celebrity/culture. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge

The actual value placed on celebrities is due to how much coverage they recieve in the media, which eventually leads to the consumers recieving more information about their personal lives. Also less stress is placed upon what their real accomplishments are or what they really are famous for, instead the more visible they are in the media makes them more famous.

• " The celebrity is a voice above others, a voice that is channeled into the media systems as being legitimately significant."
• “The greatness of the celebrity is something that can shared and, in essence, celebrated loudly and with a touch of vulgar pride. It is the ideal representation of the triumph of the masses.”

- Marshall, P. David (1997): Celebrity and Power: Fame in contemporary culture. Minneapolis, USA: university of Minnesota Press