Since the dawn of humankind there have been individuals who were better at performing certain tasks over others and were celebrated for it (Eg: Gladiators, thinkers, sixteenth century celebrities (Halasz)). Others were moved or inspired by the actions of such individuals and thus, these celebrated individuals or celebrities received a fan following. This has proved to be true throughout mankind's history and has never been clearer than in today's world. From the fan's perspective, a celebrity is a great person and one worth knowing about, but is this true all over the world?
This project attempts to answer such a question – are celebrity-fan relationships the same all over our globalized world or do fans from different countries view a specific celebrity of a certain nationality in the same way or are there differences, however subtle? In order to answer such a question, the research of this project draws from a survey, peer interactions as well as academic research, including from readings done throughout the semester (For example, parameters to research were set like in the Kanai, McElroy and Meeuf readings). The approach to these research methods was done using different demographic groups: college students aged from 18 – 21 from two very different countries, India and the United States of America. The driving factor behind choosing college students as a demographic was because their everyday lives are constantly being influenced by celebrity culture (social media influencers, fashion fads, memes and trends, etc.) and, if a celebrity is caught in a scandal, the outcry from this demographic group is often the loudest and strongest, so not only do they get influenced but are also able to exert influence on celebrities. Additionally, in both the US and India exist two of the largest pools of celebrity culture: Hollywood and Bollywood respectively. On one hand is the sheer cultural impact of Hollywood and on the other is the same but more localized to the largest democracy and second-most populated country in the world which has its own large following, including other Asian and European countries.
In order to gauge this topic, the same survey was sent, first, to Indian college students and their responses were recorded. After them, it was sent to the US students and the difference in responses was recorded. Out of a total 37 respondents, about 17 fell into the former and 20 fell into the latter category. The takeaway was that at least 51.4% and 27% had one or more than one favorite celebrity respectively and that a majority kept themselves updated via social media (91.9%), television (43.2%) and though their friends (51.4%). It is, thus, clear that social media is the most important platform for dissemination of information for this demographic, which is not at all surprising. This is the reason why thousands of celebrities vlog their daily activities and are extremely active on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to express their thoughts and opinions. Fashion bloggers, models and video content creators make sure to put out multiple posts a day on more visual social media sites like YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram. In this way, celebrities start trends and fads which may or may not attract praise from their fans. In this respect, the two demographic groups were not very different – the technology used by the youth is fully utilized by celebrities to increase their fame. Moreover, celebrities provide a lot of 'gossip material', either by making bold remarks/statements or by performing unusual acts in the public eye. This ties together with another result from the survey. When asked what adds to a celebrity's fame or infamy, about 32.4% responded with controversy and/or scandals (the other highest responses were tied for brand sponsorships and humanitarian activities – 18.9%). Therefore, it is not an unreasonable assumption that some celebrities purposefully make controversial statements or do controversial things to get the public talking about them (no publicity is bad publicity). A famous example is US President Donald Trump and his rocky election campaign and presidency. His actions throughout his election campaign like during presidential debates and speeches as well as his outrageous tweets and outspoken nature added to controversy surrounding his eventual presidency. Both demographics are in agreement about this aspect as well, as per the survey (out of the 12 respondents, 6 were from each group).
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Research Papers
AcakThe following includes the many research papers I have written throughout my college career on various topics. My classes included American Civilization and Culture, Celebrity Culture Analysis, History of Theatre, English Writing across Borders
