Larissa Oakley

Professor Padgett
ENGL 102
March 23, 2016
Bibliography and Source Analysis
Inquiry: How is society affected by celebrity worship?
Proposed thesis: Society is too heavily influenced by celebrities.
Cashmore, Ellis. Celebrity/Culture. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2006. Google books.
This textbook is heavily based on modern society's view on celebrities. When discussing
the history of celebrities, Cashmore states "There's nothing unique...about bestowing divine
status on mere mortals" (Page 78). Cashmore talks about celebrities being an ideal part of society
for as long as history has been recorded. By using terms such as "millennial cults" (Page 78),
Cashmore alludes to the negativity behind our generation's obsession with celebrities. Though
some terms are a little extreme, the underlying messages are true. Cashmore discusses how "we
do get the feeling that we 'know' celebrities"(Page 80). This source is very helpful in my
argument. It discusses how even those in society who consider themselves indifferent on a
celebrity are still impacted by them. The source is a textbook, and the author is a Professor of
Culture Media and Sport, therefore I find it credible.

Caulfield, Timothy. "The Celebrity Illusion." The Chronicle of Higher Education. N.p., 13 Apr.
2015. Web. 27 Feb. 2016. <http://chronicle.com/article/The-Celebrity-Illusion/229197/>.
Caulfield does an impressive job of incorporating a personal investigation into this
Chronicle Review article. Caulfield infiltrated an American Idol audition in the hopes to "get as
close as I can to the phenomenon of celebrity". Caulfield discuses how celebrities influence all

aspects of our lives from health to career goals. I find his points to be extremely helpful for my
research. Caulfield also discusses the relationship between the American Dream and the realistic
truth about our ability to move up the socioeconomic ladder. Unrealistic goals like these cause
celebrity ideology to harm our society. Caulfield questions "Is it a coincidence that countries that
fair relatively poorly with respect to social mobility, happiness, and education also embrace
celebrity culture and reach-for-the-stars mentality?" The discoveries in this article help to put
into perspective a lot of discoveries that will help shape my argument. I find this source to be
credible due to the fact that it comes from a Peer-Review and seems to be extremely well thought
out and executed.
Gamson, Joshua. Claims to Fame: Celebrity in Contemporary America. University of California
Press: Berkley and Los Angeles CA, 1994. Print.
This book discusses the effect of celebrity in the twentieth-century. Although, a lot of
things have changed technologically since then, many concepts are still the same. Gamson
discusses how the public can "make people famous"(Page 39). The book discusses that we are
invested into celebrities because we feel like we chose them to be celebrities. Small businesses
can thrive off of displaying and bragging about celebrities shopping, dining, or experiencing
whatever service provided. Examples like this help show how even small everyday tasks done by
celebrities can cause a huge impact on our society. In the conclusion, the book discusses the
concept of how politics "mimics, and sometimes borrows techniques directly from, entertainment
celebrity"(Page 189). If our political figures are treated as celebrities, then how are we to be able
to distinguish from the two. Our society is massively effected by relating to people we feel
willingly share themselves. I feel that this source is credible because it brought a lot of concepts
to my attention. I also noticed that it was referenced in some of my other sources.

Kurzman, Charles., Chelise Anderson, Clinton Key, Youn Ok Lee, Mairead Moloney, Alexis
Silver, and Maria W. Van Ryn. Celebrity Status. Sociological Theory 25 (2007): 34767. JSTOR. Web. 27 Feb. 2016. < http://www.jstor.org/stable/20453088>.
This is an excerpt chapter from the textbook Sociological Theory. The excerpt is heavily
influenced by Weber who is one of the founding fathers of sociology. The excerpt talks about
how "celebrities are a creature of capitalism"(Page 8). It mentions that celebrities need a
reputation and an audience in order to remain a celebrity. The excerpt discusses how "we recall
every instant that we-and our relatives and friends-spent near a celebrity"(Page 10). It discusses
how we "consider ourselves honored"(Page 11). It even discusses the concept of "groupies"(Page
11). The excerpt talks about how these can be negative effects, which help my argument. Even if
an experience with a celebrity was unpleasant, we would still tell people about it. I find this to be
extremely credible because it was published by the American Sociological Association. It was
written by multiple professors.
Lindenberg, Siegwart, Janneke F. Joly, and Diederik A. Stapel. The Norm-activating Power of
Celebrity: The Dynamics of Success and Influence. Social Psychology Quarterly74.1
(2011): 98120. JSTOR. Web. 27 Feb. 2016.
This is an excerpt from Social Psychology Quarterly. Early in the excerpt it states
"Celebrities in good standing generally have prestige...and thereby increases the weight of their
opinions"(Page 102). The excerpt heavily discusses celebrities and how they influence social
norms. It states that certain goals can "greatly increase the potential influence of
celebrities"(Page 104). Celebrities can influence us greatly especially if they are associated with
a specific social norm. The writers conducted two studies that showed celebrities who endorse
certain social norms, and then studied the participants willingness to participate in these norms.
The study showed that celebrities that are associated with certain norms have an extreme impact.
The study states "increasing the level of oughtness of social norms can have considerable macro

effects on norm conformity and social control"(Page 114). Lesser known celebrities "had a
negative influence on the activation of the particular norm"(Page 114). The study also showed
that celebrities still had an influence even if subjects stated they did not view the celebrity as a
role model. This article may not be as helpful to my argument because it is a little bit hard to
understand the study results. However, the conclusion statements are very helpful and the results
show how impactful celebrities can be.
Tugend, Alina. "Sometimes Its Good Not to Forgive." The New York Times. The New York
Times, 22 Feb. 2013. Web. 27 Feb. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/23/yourmoney/why-its-not-always-good-to-forgive.html?_r=0>.
This is probably the least credible of my sources. This comes from a commercial source.
However, I do think that the article makes some interesting points. This article talks about why
society is so easily forgiving of celebrities who commit crimes. The article written by Tugend
states that we "imbue celebrities with traits they don't have because that's the image they are
trying to sell". We forgive celebrities because we view it as the right thing to do. This helps my
argument because it shows that society holds celebrities to high standards, but refuses to hold
them accountable when they let us down. The article does make some compelling statements by
throwing it back on society when it states "We feel let down by them. That's more our fault than
theirs". I think celebrity crime forgiveness can play a key role in my argument, but I feel that this
article may not be able to provide too much help.