Sociology of Celebrities

Some questions:

• What do we make of these (assumed) non-experts conducting their own pop analyses of celebritynarcissism?: https://www.tiktok.com/channel/famous-narcissists

• What are some contemporary examples of what Rojek calls the "PR-Media Hub", i.e., media that focuses on and disseminates celebrity culture, and how might they contribute to both healthy and pathological celebrity worship?

• One of the central arguments Rojek makes is that "celebrity worship is much more than a minor subcultural phenomenon. Rather it is a general, deeply rooted characteristic of contemporary culture. Celebrity worship syndrome appears to be related to the experiences of low self-esteem and social exclusion" (53). How might this phenomenon be related to a decline in face-to-face social interactions (in-person contact and connection) and the subsequent rise of 24/7 access to online social media?

•Randy and Lori Sansone ("I'm Your Number One Fan'-A Clinical Look at Celebrity Worship") write that "researchers used the Celebrity Attitudes Scale to assess relationships between celebrity worship and religiosity. In this study of 307 participants in the United Kingdom, findings indicated that as religiosity increased, the tendency to worship celebrities decreased -a finding that was evident for both men and women" (41). If "religiosity" implies the ritual practice of going to church/synagogue/mosque and interacting with others face-to-face, does this corroborate Rojek's argumentAs we transition from social theories of the political economy of celebrity to the psychosocial aspects of celebrities and fans, let's be attuned to how we ourselves engage with celebrities and celebrity culture in our daily lives, i.e., where do we see ourselves, and perhaps our close friends or family members, in the readings for Wednesday? In the methodological shift towards the interpretation and analysis of empirical qualitative/quantitative psychosocial data, let's be mindful that the shift from "normal/healthy" to "clinical/pathological" behavior can be a sensitive topic to discuss publicly.In an article I didn't assign (McCutcheon & Aruguete, 2021, "Is Celebrity Worship Increasing Over Time?," Journal of Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities, 2021, 7:1, pp. 66-75), researchers gathered data from 35 studies between 2001- 2021 of US participants who completed the Celebrity Attitude Scale. They established objective criteria for determining the proportion of participants from each study who qualified as "celebrity worshippers." The results indicate that celebrity worship increased dramatically from 2001 to 2021. The implications of increases in celebrity worship are important, given research showing that high levels of celebrity worship are often associated with attitudes and behaviors such as anxiety, depression, obsessive thoughts, suicide attempts, excessive gambling, disordered eating patterns, and difficulty maintaining intimate relationships.In "3: Celebrity and Sickness", Chris Rojek discusses how celebrity/stardom is closely associated with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), a diagnosis in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) published by the American Psychiatric Association.

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