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lectures > lectures spring 2003

Fame, Celebrities and the Psychology of the Media

Speaker: David Giles
26th April 2003

As the number of celebrities grows ever larger, and the list of their apparent 'achievements' ever shorter, people are often heard to wonder why it is that our society seems to be so obsessed with the idea of fame. In this talk I will discuss the phenomenon of celebrity from the standpoint of the celebrities themselves (who inhabit a bizarre psychological world where they are permanently under the gaze of millions of other people), as well as from the perspective of the media audience.

The term 'parasocial interaction' is often used to describe the strange, one-sided relationship that audience members strike up with media figures, regardless of their fictional status. But little is known about how such relationships develop, what they mean to the audience, and what influence they have on our behaviour. Are celebrities more than just surrogate 'friends'? Might they have an educational function? And why are we so keen to turn members of the public into celebrities through 'reality TV' shows and news stories.

David Giles studied English literature and worked as a freelance music journalist before studying Psychology in the 1990s. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1996 and has since lectured full-time at Bolton Institute, Sheffield Hallam University and Coventry University, where he is now Senior Lecturer in Psychology in the School of Health and Social Sciences.
He has published numerous articles in scholarly journals, and three books about media psychology and research methods. He is currently halfway through his second novel. One day, he hopes, somebody might actually publish his first one...

http://www.hss.coventry.ac.uk/Psychology/giles.htm