The concept of celebrity and the public performance of self in the modern era has totally change and all these can be attributed to social media and parallel media specific websites like YouTube. Man is increasingly inhibiting spaces where they are not only on display, but also think about their mediated construction of themselves. There is a complete proliferation of the public self in the sense that even advertising is used sentimentally inflected messages to convince various demographics of the value of goods for better relations and better lives. Everybody wants to lead a specular lifestyle that is designed by the media and portrayed by the celebrities. We are all celebrity stalkers and we live our lives as the mirror, what we see in them is that we do. Weird!
Consider this quote from marshal, (2010);
“The boundaries of public, private and intimate have always been a province of intriguing and tantalising debate about celebrity as people seek to find out what the famous are really like,"
Miranda Kerr is a tweeter, a female Australian supermodel, a Victoria’s Secret Angel, the founder of KORA Organics & author of Treasure yourself-a female self-help book. Miranda Kerr has 1,689,191twitter followers and 630 twitter accounts that she follows. So far, she has tweeted 1,658 tweets in her account.
Despite being a public figure, Miranda has managed to curve herself a private lifestyle. However, the public surveillance has not left her alone as she often has to live with the caution that the big brother is watching. She has used all form of social media to publicize herself, and rise to prominence. For example Miranda’s twitter activity does in fact contribute to her overall public image. Through twitter, one establishes that Miranda is not only Australian but also a Supermodel with a very high profile. We are also able to establish that in her modelling career she has been able to land a job as Victoria Secrets angel, has had a photo spread for vogue magazine, and more recently has been involved in the Rebook campaign. She mostly is willing to share her success with her followers, such as modelling as well as the different jobs she does on here tweeter page .She is living up to the expectations of her followers and staying professional in the social media environment.
Globalization has encouraged sharing of personal issues. Referring to Miranda, it is seen that she was able to share her dreams and aspirations with the international society. Miranda’s dream and aspiration was to sail and through social media.Globalization has ensured the growth of less popular celebrities to fully popular celebrities. Taking Miranda as an example, she acquired a lot of recognition from the global society. Many people through social media admired Miranda since she struggled to accomplish her dreams and become a super model. This made Miranda acquire fame and recognition.
Not only has globalization implicated the celebrities, it has also affected the audiences. Many people are striving to act and behave like celebrities. People try to imitate the lifestyles of celebrities in various aspects like clothing, language among other aspects. This effect has negatively affected the society in that people are abandoning their aspirations trying to embrace aspirations of celebrities which obviously lead them nowhere.
Globalization has had negative implications on celebrities. Putting into account Tiger Woods, his entire career and reputation was ruined through social media. The spread of negative information can ruin a celebrities’ image making his fans and colleagues ashamed to be associated with the celebrity hence destroying his reputation.
From the entire discussion, it is seen that globalization issues have had more positive implications compared to negative implications. Therefore, globalization should be encouraged to ensure that people globally exchange ideas and information for the growth of the global society
References
Marshall, D, (2010). ‘The Specular Economy.’ Society, 47, 6, pp. 498 – 502, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 31 August 201
Marshall, P. D Watson, J. 2010. Official Jessica Watson Blog, weblog: http://www. 2009. Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright.... Tiger Woods and the contemporary celebrity juggernaut. David Marshall, weblog
Hi Ella,
ReplyDeleteYour post this week had some really interesting information, I enjoyed the part about Miranda Kerr. This example is well used in relation to Marshalls reading on the Specular Economy. This post shows you understand the ideas in the reading and have incorporated them in to the post. However, I think you could have strengthened your ideas and arguments with some more references from Marshall, using them to back up your points on globalisation and the big brother complex in the Miranda Kerr example. I also found that there were a few parts in the post that were a little disjointed, perhaps read over it a few times before posting to make sure the language and words flow together nicely. Good job!
Hi Ella,
ReplyDeleteI find the concept of celebrity and the media really interesting. I am a fan of Miranda Kerr so had a major interest in your blog post this week. I agree with your closing statement in saying that globalisation should be encouraged. It is a great means of communication and way of transferring information. I believe celebrities are using it in a positive way which you have demonstrated in your post. I think your post would have been strengthened if you were to reference Marshalls article on the specular economy. Other than that you raised some valid points. An enjoyable read.
Hello Ella,
ReplyDeleteYour focus on a local celebrity and how she has branded herself into global recognition was really interesting. Before Miranda made it big time, she was only known in Australia. Thanks to Twitter as you mentioned, Miranda has wielded her status from ‘model’ to ‘supermodel’. Social media therefore reaches audiences to a global scale, and elevates celebrities to a higher (and faster) level of recognition. Miranda’s interaction with her followers by sharing ‘personal’ thoughts may reconfigure how she is portrayed by the media. It gives her character more depth as people begin to see Miranda as a person, and not just a model. Social media gives celebrities to represent themselves, and therefore celebrity culture has reached a whole new level of intimacy as celebrity and fans interact more than ever before.
The quote from Marshall that you use accompanied by the Miranda Kerr example is quite interesting. Social media is pushing and blurring the boundaries between public and private life but ultimately Miranda Kerr is still in control of what she tweets. As Marshall explains in the text, each user in in control of the image that they portray. The public will always aspire to know what celebrities are really like but the image on display through social media is constructed in the career interests of the subject.
ReplyDeleteThe quality of your discussion shows a good understanding of the concepts. The imagery could be enhanced by showing some examples of Miranda Kerr's tweets. Just be careful of things like spacing between words and keeping a consistent font to improve the presentational quality of your post. Otherwise, it was a very fluid and relevant read.
Hey Ella
ReplyDeleteYour post examining celebrity this week I thought was incredibly thorough. I enjoyed how you used McLuhan’s readings to present the example of Miranda Kerr and her online twitter persona as something that is likened to almost a big brother figure for her in terms of her own privacy. Later you compare Miranda’s success with the globalisation of modeling, something that is evident as you go into further detail about her various modeling portfolios and campaigns. I think one thing that could have benefited you post would be some outside links to her twitter account or perhaps posts of hers that might be considered personal. I feel it would help the readers to better gauge the notion of twitter sometimes being a tool that sometimes reveals too much. Thank you Ella for the great post!
Blake