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."

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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)