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=Celebrity Culture= This Wiki focuses on celebrity culture in the media. What is celebrity culture? Who does it affect? What role does the media play? All of these questions will be answered here. The adjoining pages focus on two major parts of celebrity culture in the media: Damage Control and Advertising.

==**What Is Celebrity Culture?**== Celebrity culture is "the structure that influences those deemed celebrities"(Schickel 1985).These structures are almost always a form of media and a celebrity is any widely known person. That means a celebrity can be an actor, singer, author, athlete, scientist or philanthropist. Publications such as [|People Magazine], [|Star] and other tabloids and shows such as [|60 Minutes] and [|Today](and all the way back to Edward R. Murrow's //Person to Person)// have given the public incredible access to celebrities. Gossip columnists such as Perez Hilton have also added to the culture. Celebrity culture is a symbiotic business relationship from which performers obtain wealth, honors, and social power in exchange for selling a sense of intimacy to audiences (Schickel, 1985). Unfortunately, the media's need to keep up the the celebrities to attract an audience can lead to unfortunate events. Paparazzi have caused countless accidents when following celebrities. The most devastating example is the death of Princess Diana.

**Who does Celebrity Culture affect?**
Celebrity culture affects almost everyone. In fact, it has become such major culture that it has been subject to much research. So many people's lives are wrapped up in the celebrity gossip that celebrity is inescapable. Fans expect heroes and role models as well as a good bit of scandal. They expect to have a way in which they can identify with their favorite celebrity. Celebrity culture allows some fans to feel as though they know the celebrities on a personal level. This in turn leads to an entire different culture.

Fan Culture [[image:http://binside.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/11/18/robert_pattinson_fans.jpg width="350" height="231" align="left"]]
Much of the fan culture can be seen in online fan communities. There are websites devoted to TV shows, movies and individual celebrities. On these sites, fans can devote all of their time to discussing their favorite celebrities, posting photos of them and even writing "fan fiction." **Fan fiction** is often stories or poems written by fans which based off of movies or shows and star their favorite celebrities. Many times, these stories also star the writer; most often in the role of the love interest. For examples of fan fiction, visit [|Quizilla.com.] Some celebrities have an almost cult like following. Fans who would travel anywhere to see "their" celebrity. They are, in many cases, young people, obsessed with getting an autograph or a picture. In the most extreme cases, a fan's identification with a celebrity can lead to role reversals where the fan covets the wealth, honors, and supposed power of the celebrity. Mark David Chapman, who murdered John Lennon in 1980, thought he was the real Beatle and that Lennon was an imposter. In 1981, when the Secret Service interviewed John Hinckley Jr., shortly after he shot President Ronald Reagan to impress actress Jodie Foster, the object of his fantasies, he asked: "Is it on TV?" (Gamson, 1999).

Role of the Media
Without the media, there would be no celebrity culture. It is through magazines, television and movies that we, as a society, interact with the rich and famous celebrities. A major tool that celebrities use to control how they are seen by the public, through the media, is public relations.

Public Relations
A celebrity's PR consultant or publicist is mainly concerned with maintaining a high public image for their client. They act as a buffer when the client wants to keep the public at bay and a gateway when it is time to embrace the public. It is the publicist who is in charge of damage control, when there is negative media attention, as well as the advertising of the client for positive media attention. Celebrities are "subjected to unprecedented scruitiny and the increasingly high expectations of fans" (Summers, 2008). For an example of a PR agency, visit [|AMP3 Public Relations.]

Content
Celebrity Damage Control

Celebrity Advertising