How did the rise of the mass media and marketing affect the kind of people Americans admired and imitated?

Answer 1

While it is not true to say that "video killed the radio star," it is certainly true that video made certain people stars who were not stars before... and who may not deserve to be stars. For example, some people like Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian have become media stars mainly for being high-profile celebrities, rather than for any great achievements in life. The mass media have always done this: when someone is in the news, people will talk about that person's actions and want to know more about him or her. Years ago, this used to mainly apply to political leaders, military generals, and the occasional stage actor or actress. But with the rise of the modern media, especially television, a more intense (and often temporary) focus could be placed on certain people, some of whom were in the news for breaking the law or for being outrageous in some way. On TV, new celebrities and new media stars are always being created: popular athletes (like certain successful football or basketball players) have gotten some of this attention, but so have the stars of various TV talent contests and so-called "reality" shows.

This isn't really new-- in the 1950s, baby boomer kids ran home after school to watch "American Bandstand," which turned some ordinary kids from Philadelphia into media sensations as they danced to the hits and rated the new music. Viewers had crushes on the Bandstand kids and wished they too could be on TV. Years later, there were the "reality TV" shows, and suddenly, people were following the exploits of Snookie and her friends on "Jersey Shore" or identifying with various of the participants in "Survivor" or discussing what the guys in "Duck Dynasty" were saying. The more popular a program is, the more viewers and fans follow it and even obsess over it. And giving them a chance to vote-- as programs like "Dancing with the Stars" or "American Idol" do, provides fans an opportunity to feel invested in the people on those programs. As new celebrities are created, there are also new opportunities for marketing of these newly famous folks, via celebrity magazines (People, Us Weekly), tabloid gossip sites (TMZ for example), and social media polls ("tweet with us about which contestant deserves to be eliminated tonight!"); more importantly, products can be sold that the celebrities are said to like, or that celebrities have officially endorsed-- fashions they are wearing, or in the case of shows like "Duck Dynasty," entire lines of show-themed merchandise (hats, shirts, even hunting gear).

We are living in a culture of instant celebrity and instant popularity, where a combination of appearing on certain hot TV shows and being marketed by magazines and social media creates a new kind of fame-- Andy Warhol said that in the future everyone wouuld be famous for 15 minutes, and to some degree, that is what we have, as "stars" come and go. But again, this is not new. What has changed is there are more outlets (especially on social media and on various celebrity-focused websites) to amplify the person's popularity, and celebrities are now "products"-- marketed to the public along with items that are identified with the celebrity and can be purchased by his or her fans.