Celebrity Media Influence On Society

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Celerity gossip and entertainment news have become a significant and influential part of popular culture. As selling random bits of information about the lives of wealthy and famous characters and personas has become a full on industry, the impact that can come from it forms into a large part of our society. Looking at this impact through three major schools of sociological thought, Structural Functionalism, Conflict Theory, and Symbolic Interactionism, a better understanding of just how far these effects can go can be achieved. Structural Functionalism views the world as a structure that is made up of parts that are interrelated and constantly affecting each other to some extent. The purpose of celebrity gossip and the related realms of …show more content…

These celebrity blogs serve the interests of the powerful in a variety of ways. Due the high volume in which celebrity and popular culture are consumed, the influence that it can have on society is massive. In many ways celebrity media creates a friendly and lovable persona for the societal elites, while simultaneously reinforcing divisions and petty quarrels among the masses. In creating lovable elites it influences the desire of the general population away from eliminating an elite class, and pushes their desire and will into joining the elite class instead. Pop culture is reflective of society and will in turn progress on issues slowly alongside the people, but it will always remain as far to the reactionary side as it can get away with. For example in the story, “Nate Parker Will Not Apologize for Rape Accusations in 60 Minutes Interview”, Nate Parker’s Christian faith is discussed when the article is about him refusing to apologize for a sexual assault allegation that he seems to have had a part in. While Parker’s innocence is not questioned or confirmed directly in the article, by mentioning that he is a devout Christian it paints the picture that he wouldn’t do such a thing. This protects the reactionary viewpoints that women consistently lie about sexual assault and that the upper class tends to do no real wrong. Both of these sentiments are extremely dangerous and would require frequent normalization to imbue within society, which is where the influence of mass media comes in nicely for those who want to protect their reactionary

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