Celebrity culture is not new but it is the reason why some people are known and others are unknown throughout the pages of history. The fact that some people become better known than others has more to do with a desire for self-promotion or vanity than it does with personal worth or even contributions to humanity. History Forums - History is Happening -Discuss all historical topics, as well as current events, in an academic setting. ... Vanity is similar to pride, but it involves an excessive admiration of oneself because of ones real or imaginary skills, talents, accomplishments, or appearance. ... Worth is the name of several places in the United States: Worth in Illinois Worth Township in Cook County, Illinois Worth Township in Woordford County, Illinois Worth Township in Indiana Worth Township in Michigan Worth in Missouri Worth County in Missouri Worth in New York Worth Township in Butler County...
Brief history of celebrity culture
Any medium can be viewed as a vehicle for creating a celebrity culture. The famous religious books of the world's faiths are replete with examples of individuals who are well known by the general public. Some of the pharoehs of ancient Egypt set in motion devices to ensure their own fame for centuries to come. With every scientific advance names have become attached to discoveries. This article discusses faith in a religious context. ...
Modern thirst for celebrities
Because history is basically a collection of biographical stories, celebrities have been continuously recorded since the beginning of the human ability to record the activities of human beings. However, with the discovery of electronic media coupled with the growth of the advertising industry, artificial importance has been created in order to promote a product or a service, rather than to record a purely biographical event. Consequently as more new products are launched on a world market that is constantly expanding, the need for more celebrities has in itself become an industry in itself. Generally speaking, advertising is the paid promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas by an identified sponsor. ...
Attention span
With the attention span of human beings in the developed world shrinking to shorter durations, the need for new celebrities is also increasing in demand. Unlike previous years when human beings were known for actual achievements and contributions, today human beings are becoming known for the most obscure reasons which has led to the popular expression concerning "fifteen minutes of fame". Such artificially created celebrities are soon forgotten while true celebrities are remembered throughout the ages.
some links
Celebrity Culture
Celebrity Culture blog (Dr Philip Drake & Dr Andy Miah
Most people are at least exposed to either popular or high culture in the their dailies; but the vast majority of culturalcelebrities of either stripe seem to be on the Left.
I think one should draw a distinction between saying that culturalcelebrities are in an echo chamber and a particular political group is in an echo chamber.
I agree that there is a correlation between culturalcelebrity and the left, but the implication that the Left is more insulated because some of its members are culturalcelebrities seems a significant logical stretch.
Celebrity, of course, depends entirely on the attention of the relevant media, and is therefore to some extent self-sustaining: notoriously, celebrities are in the end nothing more than people who are "famous for being famous".
Expertise, reputation, and celebrity may all be elements in cultural authority, but they each operate in different ways, and in recent years celebrity has increasingly threatened to out-trump the other two.
It is true that the insidious pressures constantly working to convert reputation into celebrity and reasoned arguments into mere soundbites do tend to catch academics, in particular, off-balance, as they find themselves unversed in the ways of imposing their perspective on the media rather than the reverse.
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