A New Proposal in the System, Process and Forms of Fame and Celebrity ()
1. Introduction
The phenomenon of fame and celebrity is a modern social, communicative, media and cultural phenomenon (Elliott, 2018) . The current understanding of fame is fragmented and lacks a systematic framework. This article aims to address this gap by proposing a novel system that elucidates the fundamental components of fame and the dynamics between fans and celebrities. The article also introduces a process for analyzing fame and identifies four distinct types of fame.
2. Methodology
This research used analytical methodology and also used observational tools and applied critical theory.
As for the analytical methodology, the research used content analysis of the study (Driessens, 2013) because it is an important study in proposing a social system for celebrities, and critical theory was applied in reading and analyzing the study in order to discover its strengths and weaknesses. Based on analysis and criticism, this research proposes a new reputation system, which is the 3APCT system, which is complementary to the system proposed by the researcher and is not a substitute for it.
The analytical approach was used in the fame process, because previous studies mentioned the components that connect the famous person with his audience, but they were scattered among the studies. This research collects them in one place under the title of the fame process, as it is a compilation of the researchers’ proposed hypotheses, and formulating them in a better way that saves effort and time.
The observation tool was used to suggest forms of fame. The reason for using the observation tool is that there is no previous study describing the forms and types of fame and celebrities. The famous Khaled Al-Thunayan, whose fame was temporary, was observed. The fame of Aristotle and other scientists and artists whose fame continued over many centuries was noted and was called permanent fame. It was also noted that the fame of some artists who suddenly appear and suddenly disappear, such as the Saudi artist Abbas Ibrahim, was called fluctuating fame. Forms of fame were also built based on the system of fame, especially its elements: the time of fame and the act of fame.
3. Fame System
Researcher Driessens, O, 2013 concluded that fame is a social device consisting of celebrities, the media, audiences, and the celebrity industry.Driessens explains it as follows:
3.1. Celebrities
In the eyes of the researcher: a celebrity is defined as: an individual who has special qualities (Driessens, 2013) .
There are those who believe that celebrities are just one element in a long assembly line: celebrities are the work and at the same time they are the ones who produce this work. (Envision a manufacturing assembly line in operation) The famous person is the worker and he is the piece of sugar at the same time! He is both the producer and the produced (Driessens, 2013) .
3.2. Celebrity Industry
Celebrities are viewed from a Marxist point of view as a product that can be consumed (the masses follow them), replaced (with another celebrity-product), worshiped, and adored. According to the Marxist point of view, celebrities are a product of capitalism and the embodiment and tools of its ideology. They are used as machines for profit and economic pumping (Drake & Higgins, 2006) .
Celebrities are an established and interconnected institution, carriers of central goods. They are also celebrities: a mechanism for gathering a target audience that is important to the project of commercial popular cultural production. Celebrities create markets and audiences not only for themselves but for other brands.
But these definitions are criticized for neglecting the will of the masses. The masses also choose the famous, and it is not only the famous who chooses them. In the celebrity industry, you cannot impose a famous personality on them. The audience also judges the originality, creativity, and quality of the stars like the quality of any other product. Celebrities are considered like a commodity that is placed on the shelves and customers come to decide in the end which commodity they choose and which ones they leave behind, and therefore the audience is the one who determines the profitability of the celebrity and the duration of his work as well. DIY celebrities are called: DIY celebrities that came from do it yourself.
3.3. The Media
Some have defined celebrities as an essential media product. They are the result of attributing certain characteristics to a particular individual through mass media.
There are those who believe that what is famous is not so (i.e., is not famous) except when the intersection point occurs. What is the intersection point? When the media moves from merely covering the news of the famous person to conducting journalistic investigations that delve into the details of his private life
Celebrities do not become celebrities like this, but there must be mediation represented by the media (Brooks, 2021) .
4. Masses
Some focused their definitions on the audience: “Anyone the audience cares about is famous.”
The definitional status of these definitions is that they portray celebrities as unstable social dynamic situations and portray them as a process rather than a fixed situation (Ward, 2019) .
There are those who define the famous as: a type of power that can achieve economic profit, such as: increasing the profits of products, a wide social network (such as meeting people with power and influence), and the possibility of entering many areas without society denouncing this, but on the contrary, it acknowledges and welcomes this, and the possibility of its entry is termed. To many fields “Celebrity Migration”: This is the migration in which the famous person moves from one field to another field, such as the move of the famous comedian Donald Trump to the political field. Brazilian musician Gilberto Gil moved to the position of Brazilian Minister of Culture.
Criticism of the Previous System
Researcher Driessens, O. 2013 proposed the hypothesis that the social apparatus of celebrities.
It consists of celebrities, media, masses and the celebrity industry.
We agree with the researcher that celebrities and masses (audiences) are among the basic components of the fame system. We do not imagine a celebrity without an audience, or an audience without a celebrity, but he is criticized for placing (the celebrity industry) among the components, which we only see as a result of the media, masses, and celebrities, so it was not a classification. Well, in our opinion, this is because it is a classification that repeatedly mentioned some elements, such as the repetition of the media element and the crowd element. Firstly, the media is not an essential element in creating fame, but rather the fans behind it. The camera does not move by itself to take pictures, but rather there is a photographer behind it, and we consider this photographer to be one of the audiences we call: media audiences. Journalists, photographers, broadcasters, and others behind these media use the logic of public relations among the masses. What is called in public relations (media relations)?
In addition, we see the element of the “celebrity industry” as an extra element that should not be included because the social system as a whole is what creates this industry for us, that is, the masses of all kinds and the celebrity element are the ones who create fame together, so we do not find a new meaning in this element.
For this reason we propose a new system: the 3APCT fame system, complementary to the previous social system.
New elements and components have been added to the fame system that have not been previously presented in previous research: time, place, cause, and action.
There are elements mentioned in previous research, but I expand their meaning and add new insights to them: the masses and the famous.
5. Fame System 3APCT
I propose a new system of fame consisting of six elements that can be summed up in one word 3APCT:
1) Audience
2) Act of fame Act
3) Reason/mediator of fame Arbitrator
4) Place of fame
5) Celebrity
6) Time of fame
The six elements can be explained and detailed as follows:
5.1. The Audience
The link that connects audiences and celebrities is parasocial interaction, also called parasocial interaction, which expresses a one-way relationship resulting from a false sense of intimacy created during media consumption (in a simpler explanation: relationship/interaction Metasocial is that viewers of a media medium such as television feel, with intense viewing, a sense of friendliness and familiarity towards the broadcaster or media personality, then they create an emotional relationship with him and build their imaginations and behaviors based on it—the author. It is a term that expresses the influence of the media on the masses and was developed by researchers (Stever, 2017) . They originally refer to the media user’s reaction to the media performer, such that the user perceives the performer as an intimate and close conversation partner, especially when the camera approaches the performer and addresses the user directly. He feels intimate and close even though he knows that this is an illusion (Stever, 2017) .
5.2. Celebrity
The celebrity consists of a complete and integrated identity, which is represented by the body, the psychological inner self of the famous person, the external personality that shows the self-image, and the media face that appears in the spotlight. This is what the Polish study on 26 celebrities in the field of culture and art, Wróblewski and Grzesiak, 2020 , found that the personal brand of the famous person is formed by individual abilities, without which it is impossible for the personal brand to be formed.
We detail the identity of the famous person more broadly:
The body: The masses form a real image (as in pictures and films) or a compensatory imaginary (by this we mean famous people in history who were not included in the media and we do not know their image or voice, so instead we imagine an image and voice of them and give it an imagined imaginary movement).
The inner self includes: the values, attitudes, feelings, and thoughts of the famous person.
The external personality: This particular person is the most important in its communication and relationship with the public. The external personality is represented by the name, deeds, qualities, talents, image of the famous person and his abilities.
It is also the image imprinted in the minds of the masses about the famous person, and there is a clear relationship between the personal brand of the famous person and the image that the famous person gives of himself.
Personality strength is the celebrity’s capital, and individual abilities are important in forming the celebrity’s personality, and the celebrity increases his human capital by using the media, the Internet, and audiences (Wróblewski & Grzesiak, 2020) .
5.3. The Act of Fame
Previous literature ignored an important element in the formation of the celebrity, which is action. These previous systems did not explain how the celebrity relates to the audience except from a psychological and cognitive aspect (through familiarity, friendliness, interaction, awareness, and recognition of the celebrity).
But she ignored the most important component of this process: action. The famous person has an action and action that he presents to his society, environment, and audiences, and this action may be accepted or criticized.
Celebrities are the work and at the same time they are the ones who produce this work (Driessens, 2013) .
The act of becoming famous may be a work of art, such as a painting, song, film, sculpture, pottery, and other artistic and craft industries. It may be cognitive work such as books, research, and studies. It may be literary or philosophical. What about celebrities who don’t offer any of this! In this case, the celebrity itself, with its charisma, is the act that generates fame.
5.4. The Cause/Mediator of Fame
The famous person conveys his action to the masses through a cause or medium that is the reason for his fame.
The reason for his fame may be that people talk about him, it may be the media, or the reason for his fame may be that one of the leaders of public opinion spoke about him. For example, one of the American presidents mentioned the name of a book in his speech, and this increased its sales.
This book was not famous before, and the reason for its fame: an opinion leader, in addition to the media.
The reasons for fame are too many to list here, and what I want to focus on is that the reason for fame is not limited to the media only as is found in other studies and systems that have dealt with the analysis of fame and celebrities.
Relationship rules between means and fame
We decide on a set of rules regarding medium and goodwill:
The more means, the more celebrity, and the less, the less celebrity.
There are few celebrities from Greek civilization, and television celebrities in the television era are fewer than today’s celebrities.
The more the means is available and owned by everyone, the easier it is to achieve fame.
Because the means enable the individual to become famous, but more precisely, the more means and techniques individuals are able to possess, the greater their chances of fame.
But the more celebrities there are in an era, the less likely they are to be remembered and remain in memory, and the fewer celebrities there are in a given era, the more they will be remembered.
Every medium has its celebrities. If they disappear, they disappear unless the celebrity moves to another medium and continues, or if some of its meaning remains (Where are the BlackBerry celebrities? And the forums?)
I suggest to future research that they conduct quantitative research into how many celebrities give birth in one day!? I think we’ll make a big discovery.
Traditional media used to highlight celebrities and repeat them in more than one program on the same channel, and perhaps in more than one season or episode. As for the new media, they have begun to focus on the unknown and famous guest, and this is the heart and soul of journalism!
5.5. The Place/Environment of Fame
Location: Physical geographical location.
Environment: includes the social, cultural, organizational, etc. environment.
The place where the famous person resides, the place where he performed his act of fame, and the place or environment that he changed and influenced.
The place may be the whole world, as there are international celebrities whom most cultures know, such as Aristotle, for example:
The famous person exchanges influence and change with his environment, as it affects him and he influences it.
5.6. The Time of Fame
By the time of fame we mean: the starting point and starting point of fame and the formation of audiences around the famous person.
This famous person may have presented a wonderful work of art, but his fame did not begin until 10 years after submitting the work. By the time of fame, we mean: the period of time of fame, as his fame may last for 7 days! Due to the intense media coverage and the formation of audiences, then this fame fades, and his fame may last until his death, then his mention and will cease after death. It may or may not, but I will discuss this mysterious topic in detail in the forms of fame.
So the time of fame is the time from which fame began and ended.
Every celebrity has a specific beginning of time of fame and an end of time or infinity!
(As in permanent fame, and we will explain this further in the forms of fame)
The more the celebrity continues to appear in the media to the masses, the greater the chance of his fame and its continuity and continuity. Temporal continuity is an important factor for lasting fame.
5.7. Fame Process
Previous studies have dealt with the process of fame, but they have not dealt with the process of fame, and this is what the study presents. In addition, previous studies have not dealt with the process of fame from the media dimension, and even if they dealt with it from the media dimension, it is not helpful in understanding the process and how it occurs in a deep way. Therefore, we have proposed a new model and process for goodwill consisting of the following:
Attracting attention: The famous person’s attempt to attract the attention of the masses, with his distinctive characteristics (talents, ideas, actions and specific works).
The ability to attract attention: The basic interactive advantage of fame is attracting attention (Kurzman et al., 2007) . In life there are many things that attract our attention, among them: the famous. If an individual succeeds in attracting our attention, then he is considered famous or beginning to become famous. It attracts our attention with distinctive features or multiple meanings that attract our attention (Stever, 2018) .
The value of celebrities is rooted in attracting attention and mobilizing audiences (Gamson, 2011) .
The need for belonging among the public
The frequency and intensity of the celebrity’s media appearances before the masses
Intensity of audience exposure to the celebrity: It is recognized in media exposure theory that intensity of exposure to media content leads to a strong and severe effect (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2014) .
Creating a meta-social relationship: It begins by identifying the famous person, then getting to know him, then accepting him, then feeling familiarity and friendliness towards him until a strong connection with him occurs, as this was explained previously.
Then the masses adopt the identity of the famous person: adopting his feelings, thoughts, and behaviors through social learning and modeling, that is, imitation. Rhetorical and dramatic theories and literature reviews have suggested that the extent of communication influence depends on audiences sharing an identity with the fictional character in a general connection with the fictional character, and when this connection or similarity occurs between the viewer and the character, the audience is influenced by the character on the level of performance and behavior as well. Burke calls it “dramatic identification,” which is the basis of drama. According to this theory, identity depends on the connection between the character and members of the audience (Buckingham, 2008) .
The process can be explained in more detail as follows:
Originally the public has a natural need for social affiliation. The celebrity has the desire and ability to attract attention. Media appearance and its frequency affect the creation of the parasocial relationship, which in our opinion consists of the following: recognition, acceptance, familiarity and friendliness, and connection. This relationship and its depth affect the audience’s adoption of the celebrity’s identity: his feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.
With greater explanation: The repeated appearance of the famous person on the masses, including the media, and the extent of the intensity of this repetition and the intensity of the masses’ exposure to him, will lead to the masses getting to know him and then, if they get to know him and his identity, they feel accepted towards him, and if acceptance does not occur, the relationship between them has failed (and acceptance is a new element in the process that has not been done before). If indicated by previous studies), then after acceptance, the audience feels familiarity and friendliness, and then these feelings grow more and more with frequent media appearances (repeated appearances create familiarity), but media appearances are not enough. Rather, there must be intensity and density of the audience’s exposure to them in order to create a strong relationship and connection between them. Then the audience adopts the behaviors, feelings, and ideas of the famous person, learns socially from him, and emulates him.
What is new added by this study to this process is that it is a process for fame and not for the famous, as in previous studies. It also added the intensity of exposure and the intensity
And repeated appearance, without which familiarity and friendliness cannot be built. It also added acceptance.
After thinking, I suggest that the fame system has four forms:
Non-existent fame, fluctuating fame, temporary fame, permanent fame, It can be explained as follows.
6. Forms of Fame
The first form: non-existent fame
Non-existent fame is one that lacks most of the elements of fame, which leads to the nihilism of this person’s fame.
There are two cases of bad goodwill:
He does not have the ability to become famous: he does not have the ability to do so in the first place.
It has an action: and we have another set of possibilities:
He has an act of fame, but he has little influence and change, which has alienated the masses from him.
He has an act of fame that has a strong impact and change, but he does not have a mediator or reason for fame, which prevents him from the masses.
As for the time and place of fame and fans, they are completely non-existent.
The second form: fluctuating fame
An unstable state of fame
He has the act of fame, and he has its cause and mediator, and he has his audience, and he has a specific time in which his fame began, and the place of fame, but it fluctuates, sometimes rising and sometimes disappearing. The masses sometimes accept him and sometimes leave him, following him today and boycotting him tomorrow.
The reason for the fluctuating reputation is due to a number of reasons that we suggest:
The act of fame has little or moderate impact and change.
The act of fame is not continuous in its time: that is, the famous person does not continue to present the act of fame, even if it is strong in change and influence, and does not show the continuity of this act to the public, which weakens his fame over time. For example, there is a celebrity who became famous during the BlackBerry era, then disappeared, then returned again to Instagram, then disappeared, then returned via a television episode entitled: Where did Celebrity X disappear?
Crises that the celebrity creates with his fans
The third form: temporary fame
Rapid, batch fame that occurs at once, starting at a specific time and then ending at a specific time.
Writer Andy Warhol predicted in 1960: “In the future everyone will be famous for just fifteen minutes.” (Kurzman et al., 2007)
Let us cite an example of this with the famous Thanyan, who wrote a criticism on Twitter of Twitter CEO Elon Musk, to which Musk replied: “We will”.
This was the reason for his fame! But it is temporary fame that began at the time of writing the tweet and ended days later. Although newspapers and news wrote about it, it is temporary fame.
This is because it is of medium influence and weak to change, and its fame has not lasted over time.
I can say that one of the most important reasons for temporary fame is: an act of fame that has little impact or change, or the short period of time for this act. If the famous person continued to present his act continuously, his fans would be formed and his fame would remain.
Characteristics of temporary fame
Through thinking and research, I found that temporary fame has a set of characteristics:
The speed: the immediate and instantaneous move of the famous person from the unknown to the known.
Suddenness: It comes to a person in a way he did not expect.
Immediacy: instantaneous in its time, it comes and goes.
The instrumental need for replacement and renewal: The media needs new celebrities every time, and they replace the famous person with another celebrity in the media program. Because of this substitution, the famous person does not remain famous and does not remain in the spotlight for long.
Scarcity of attention and boredom: Audiences rarely give their attention, and they are also quick to get bored with one celebrity, so they need another celebrity, and another, and so on. Personally, I do not consider those who achieved temporary fame to be famous because everyone can do that and achieve it. If everyone achieved temporary fame, then the phenomenon of fame would not exist. Because everyone is famous, then no one is famous!
Weakness and lack of creativity and innovation, as the public expects permanent and continuous creativity from the famous person.
The act or cause of fame does not continue and the famous person does not continue to appear to his audience.
An important rule: Anything that builds itself quickly and easily will quickly be destroyed.
Anything that builds itself gradually, slowly and with difficulty, always remains stable.
Fame that occurs in an hour will disappear after three days or less.
Stardom is what is built gradually, whether through building an audience or appearance.
Perhaps (ease) explains to us why, if the ability of individuals to easily own means increases, stardom among them decreases and temporary fame increases.
The fourth form: lasting fame
Gradual fame happens slowly and steadily.
An act of fame with a strong impact and change that is permanent in the minds of the masses and imprinted in their memory, or an act of fame that continues in its time.
There is a celebrity with weak or average influence and change, but because of his long period of time, he is imprinted in the minds of the masses and they constantly remember him.
Lasting fame may be in a specific place, such as the fame of a Spanish poet in Spain only, as he is not known in the Arabian Peninsula, for example. But his fame remains constant from ancient times to today.
In permanent fame, fame continues even after the famous person disappears. For example, if he dies or retires, his fame continues; because the act of fame continues to have the impact and change it has on the audiences and the environment/place.
Stages of creating lasting fame
We suggest stages for creating lasting fame:
Possibility or preparatory fame: an intrinsic preparation of the famous person that includes knowledge and practice alone and in isolation. Low social control, meaning no one pays attention to him at this stage. If the veil had been lifted over the future of this ordinary person, everyone would have paid attention to him early, so how would Einstein’s teacher and his school have known that he would become famous tomorrow? This stage is usually mysterious because of its latency and concealment, and we do not know its life and beginnings.
Lightning: The public act of becoming famous in front of a small audience. What is meant by this is that he tries himself and tests it in front of the public, and shines once or twice due to his fame in order to learn lessons and seek people’s opinions regarding his famous act. In order to learn and develop the act of fame, social control rises to a moderate level, as those around them begin to learn about this celebrity, correct him, and discipline him. Here he presents his work to a small community, whether a scientist or an artist, to receive criticism from the community and learn again.
Fame: Here the act of fame and fame appears in a final way that changes or has a strong impact on the larger society. Here social control rises to a high level.
Phenomenon: It turns into a negative or positive phenomenon that society suffers from, such as criminals, or a positive phenomenon that society is proud of, and the famous person is not a phenomenon until the masses try to invade his personal privacy and are curious and thirsty to know his diaries? What does he eat? Fans are surprised by his remarkably ordinary lifestyle, given his immense talent and fame. The imitation begins here with the famous person’s clothing, his speech, his accent, his pronunciation, the transmission of his sayings, the prevalence of his name, or his sharp and severe criticism. Scientific research begins by studying this famous person, the phenomenon, and the actions he left behind, as is the case with Einstein, about whom psychological, social, and historical studies are still being conducted to this day. In this case, social control rises to an excessive degree of monitoring the famous person in its smallest details.
7. Results
This research contributes to understanding and explaining the social and communication phenomenon: fame and celebrities. Thanks to proposing a new system for famous people and celebrities, it controls the assumptions of different social and political politicians to understand the monthly way celebrities and interpret how they communicate with the masses. It also became the first time for the first time and genres of fame. These are the most important findings of the research:
1) The proposed fame system consists of six elements grouped in the word 3APCT, alternatives to the previous social system proposed by Driessens, O. 2013, which consisted of four elements. Since the old system of the researcher Driessens, O. 2013 and the new one confirmed by this research called 3APCt for fame in the structure of the medium and the audience, but they are different at the medium, Driessens, O. 2013 sees that the month contains the media, but the proposed new system puts this under a more comprehensive concept that he calls: the cause or medium of fame. The proposed items, which are new for the first time to be proposed, may include: the act of becoming famous, and the time and place of becoming famous.
2) Connecting to a new element in the fame system, which is the “act of fame.” The act of fame may be a scientific or artistic work, or it may be ready to work permanently. Between my measurement and the audience there must be something that the masses can imagine about.
3) The impact of the research is a new element in the fame system, which is the place of fame. Every famous person has a place in which he is famous and from which his fame began. It may be a month for a person on a local level only, or it may be on a global level.
4) The research impacts a new element in the fame system: the time of fame. Fame has a time at which it begins and ends. It may require a person to be temporarily recommended for a month, a decision, or an hour, and it may require coordination that lasts for thousands of years.
5) She searches for the protest of fame and the components that are linked to it and connected with the masses with the masses from the great psychological aspect, and she arrives at: the public has a need for belonging, and the celebrity has a protest within a protest, the importance of his repeated media appearances in front of the masses, the masses are under intensity to speed, which creates a relationship beyond society. Others are there with friendliness and familiarity, including the relationship between the audience and the celebrity, and the audience’s compatibility with his identity and ideas. This study affected something new in the monthly track, which previous studies did not add, namely: the development of information and radiation intensity.
6) The study found that fame has four conditions, based on a famous group of famous artists and scientists: Non-existent fame, in which the individual is not famous, does not have an audience, and does not have the act of becoming famous. Erased fame appears and disappears, and temporary fame lasts for a certain period and then stops. The research has presented a new interpretation of the rainy month and classified it as characteristics, namely: suddenness, speed, weakness, and the achievement of creativity in works of art, and the need for the media to switch between celebrities and even to replace the old famous with the new famous. Fame will last a long time and I have suggested four levels for one month: probability of the month (you are likely to be famous) then signal (that is, showing importance to a small number of audiences). Then fame became in our lives and then it turned from a famous person into a phenomenon when the masses became aware of him and studies began to pay attention to him and study him.
8. Conclusion
The proposed fame system consists of the celebrity, the masses, the time, the place, the act of becoming famous, and the cause or medium of fame.
The celebrity consists of an integrated identity that includes the body, the inner self, and the outer personality that is visible to the public and is linked to the masses. As for the masses, the most important thing that connects him to the audience is what is beyond social interaction.
The act of fame is the works and actions that the famous person presents to the masses, such as artistic, sports, cultural, and other works. The phenomenon of fame encompasses the works and actions that a renowned individual presents to the public, spanning artistic, athletic, cultural, and other endeavors. The conduits of fame, such as various media and marketing strategies, facilitate the transmission of these celebrated works and actions to a mass audience. The renowned individual’s place of residence and the duration of their fame, whether fleeting or enduring, are also integral aspects of the fame phenomenon.
The process of fame also consists of attracting attention, the need for belonging among the masses, the intensity of media exposure, the intensity of media appearances from the famous person to the masses, and the creation of a metasocial relationship.
Fame has four forms: non-existent fame, which lacks all the elements that make up the system of fame; fluctuating fame, which is the unstable state in which the famous person sometimes appears and sometimes disappears; temporary fame, which is quick and impulsive at a certain time and then the famous person never appears after that; and permanent fame. That occurs gradually, slowly but surely.