Celebrity

Celebrity is the attachment of honorific or sensational status to an individual. There are two forms of celebrity. Ascribed celebrity refers to the attachment of honorific status to an individual by reason of bloodline. Prince William, Caroline Kennedy, and Jade Jagger possess honorific status because they are physically related to famous dynasties. Achieved celebrity refers to the attachment of honorific or sensational status to a person by reason of accomplishments. For example, Pete Sampras and Lennox Lewis are sports celebrities by virtue of their achievements in tennis and boxing; Jennifer Lopez and Brad Pitt are known for their star status in film; Stephen King and J. K. Rowling are famous for writing fiction. Sensational celebrities acquire fame for their notoriety. Examples include Lee Harvey Oswald, Mark David Chapman, and Monica Lewinsky. In advanced industrial society based around universal systems of mass communication, the incidence of sensational celebrity probably has a strong propensity to increase. We shall come to the reasons for this below. Generally speaking, the transition from traditional to modern societies involves contraction in the salience of ascribed celebrity and expansion in the concept of achieved celebrity.

Ascribed celebrities predominate in traditional, preindustrial societies organized around relatively fixed and [Page 84]stable hierarchies of power. For example, in traditional European society, the monarch occupied the head of state and was the recognized representative of God on earth. The emperor occupied the same role in Japan and until relatively recently was considered to be a divine being. The power of ascribed celebrity derives from birthright. It is associated with court society, a social formation in which power and influence is mediated through a retinue of lesser ascribed celebrities (in Britain, lords, barons, earls, duchesses, and ladies), who nominally pledge loyalty and allegiance to the monarch. The power of ascribed celebrity usually requires elaborate processes of ritual reaffirmation, with the court and the people obliged to regularly demonstrate fealty and respect through acts of obeisance and voluntary servitude. Because ascribed celebrity is presented as an eternal state of affairs, it is often very intolerant of criticism. Court society acts as a safety valve for criticism, dissipating challenges to the monarch's authority through courtly devices of negotiation and leverage. However, in some cases, court society may operate as a sphere of intrigue that functions to depose the monarch and replace him or her with a more suitable authority figure. In traditional society, the court is the indispensable audience for attributing meaning to celebrity performance. Court circles possess universal literacy and an effective network of power that enables them to report developments to crossroads of influence situated nationally and internationally and, through these mains, reinforce or curtail the power of the monarch. Ascribed celebrities are not, in the long run, compatible with mass democracies, since their power is unelected and their authority depends on relations of habit, not accomplishment.

Achieved celebrities predominate in industrial societies in which the political system of democracy and mass communications systems has become generally established in a territorially bounded unit. The elevation of achieved celebrities from the ranks of ordinary people occurs by dint of their accomplishments. These accomplishments are typically represented to us through the various branches of the mass media. The mass media do not simply report newsworthy figures and items. They also engage in the public construction and elevation of celebrity. This is part of a more general process in advanced industrial society through which achieved celebrity status is commercialized and commodified. By definition, achieved celebrities convey distinction, and this is an important asset in media ratings wars. In conditions of achievement famine, where the supply of achieved celebrities is insufficient to satisfy media and public demand, the media may resort to techniques of celebrity improvisation, through which achieved celebrities are imposed upon the public. Achieved celebrities who are elevated into public consciousness in intense, concentrated bursts of activity are called celetoids. Examples of celetoids include one-hit-wonders, have-a-go-heroes, lottery winners and one-off virtuosos in medicine, sport, or crime. Common to all is the quality of being intensively showcased by the media for brief intervals, after which they are consigned into obscurity.

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