Week Eight: Celebrity Culture

This week we have Professor Marshall as guest speaker and discuss about ‘Celebrity and the Specular Economy’. Professor Marshall (2010), in his article, discuss about how people and celebrity care about how they look to others and how others think of them. It describe that we are like celebrities, we also ‘mask’ ourselves when we present ourselves in life, especially on media like social network websites.

I love the Korean culture but it is heartbreaking to hear that most Korean celebrities do plastic surgery, and this encourage the young girls and boys and the general public to also get plastic surgery because they want to look pretty and handsome like the celebrities but they are actually ‘masking’ themselves. The statistics below from International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery show that South Korea is the country with the most people to get plastic surgery and Australia is ranked 15^th.

This week we also talk about how celebrities sometimes really don’t have privacy. Paparazzi like to capture the ugly and humiliating moments of celebrities because this is what people actually want to see. People want to see the ‘unmasked’ celebrities. Recently, Prince Harry got caught with naked photos and this is the side that people never see of Prince Harry.

Professor Marshall discuss that because of new media like social media. It is easier to spread news and gossips about celebrities and their culture influence is higher. Traditional and main channel media now also rely on social media to get their sources.

Reference

Marshall, D. (2010). ‘The Specular Economy’. Society. Vol.47. Issue6. pp. 498-502. EbscoHost.

Image

http://www.koreabang.com/2012/stories/south-korea-tops-plastic-surgery-tables-again-netizens-react.html

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/08/22/prince-harry-naked-photos-surface-online/