A quick scan of Barack Obama's official YouTube
channel reveals, among other things, Jennifer Lopez speaking in "Join
Latinos for Obama" or Lena Dunham's infamous Your
First Time, an allegory relating losing virginity to voting for the
first time, and emphasizing how it "needs to be special" and the way
to make it special is to vote for Obama.
Who are these people to tell me who deserves to be
president?
They're not authorities on politics. My personal favorite celebrity endorsement, satire aside, is Joss Whedon on how Obama will better prepare us for the zombie apocalypse. As a science fiction director and writer (his works include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse, Firefly, Serenity, and The Avengers), Whedon is qualified to talk about zombies. So if your priority for the future is preparing for the zombie apocalypse, his opinion is valid. Neither can I believe Donald Trump when he attacks Obama in favor of Romney, because I don't believe somebody so wealthy can be acting in the best interests of America as a whole.
They're not authorities on politics. My personal favorite celebrity endorsement, satire aside, is Joss Whedon on how Obama will better prepare us for the zombie apocalypse. As a science fiction director and writer (his works include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse, Firefly, Serenity, and The Avengers), Whedon is qualified to talk about zombies. So if your priority for the future is preparing for the zombie apocalypse, his opinion is valid. Neither can I believe Donald Trump when he attacks Obama in favor of Romney, because I don't believe somebody so wealthy can be acting in the best interests of America as a whole.
The
fact of the matter is, celebrities do influence us for better or worse. People idolize celebrities and want to emulate how they live, dress, communicate, shop, and by extension, vote (Muda, Musa, and Putit 375). I can understand the desire to be like celebrities; they're rich, talented, successful, beautiful people. I want to look and sing like Beyonce. But a velvety singing voice and an intelligent political opinion do not necessarily go hand-in-hand. I'm not saying that celebrities don't vote intelligently; I just don't think I should listen to them just because they're famous and they happen to be good friends with the politician.
Expertise and trustworthiness are very important components of credibility (Byrne, Whitehead, and Breen 291). Celebrities can’t completely establish those, by nature of their careers. Yes, they are entitled to their opinions. And they can vote according to those opinions. But that doesn’t make celebrities political experts, nor does it mean their opinions are preferable for me or the rest of the country. When I go vote on November 6th, it won't be because a famous person told me exactly how I should.
It's time for a change.
Works Cited
Muda, Mazzini, Rosidah Musa, and Lennora Putit. "Breaking Through the Clutter in Media Environment: How do Celebrities Help?."Procedia- Social and Behavioral Sciences 42. (2012): 375. Science Direct. Web. 1 Nov 2012.
I really liked your main point about not being swayed to vote or make other decisions by celebrities. But, I would have liked to know a little bit more about the research that shows how much the rest of the population is influenced by celebrities. ~Mady Kener
ReplyDelete...I was not overly motivated to vote by Lena's allegory, I'm sorry. Not that I'm criticizing you, I'm criticizing her. And the zombie apocalypse video was funny. But, like Mady said, how do we know celebrities are influencing people? Have you got references, statistics, etc? That would be nice.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your main point that our votes should not be influenced solely by celebrities. However, I would have liked to see more evidence as to why we should not listen to celebrities opinions only. Perhaps we should do research to formulate our own opinions? Also, an example of a certain celebrity's career that makes him or her not a credible source to base your opinion off of would have been a good addition.
ReplyDelete-Alex Zollo
I really enjoyed the voice that comes through in this post. I really like how you weave your research into your own opinion and use that to argue your claim. What I think might be better is if you spent a little more time on the components of credibility and maybe less on the examples of celebrity endorsements. Good work!
ReplyDelete-Sam Loveland
Madalyn, thank you for your comment. I want to clarify that not everyone is influenced by celebrities, nor that it's necessarily a blind following. There are several studies that show that celebrities become increasingly influential when they, like the study I cited said, are more trustworthy and knowledgeable about the subject. This adds to credibility.
ReplyDeleteLooney, I agree that no rational person would place zombie apocalypse preparation as the highest priority when electing a politician. I did think that Lena's video touched on some important topics in the presidential election; many women preferred Obama because they felt that he cared more about them because of the abortion and birth control issue. Videos like this one would have swayed opinions of some undecided voters and strengthened opinions of Obama's supporters. You're right of course, though, when you point out that I need to find more sources to scientifically prove my statements.
ReplyDeleteAlex, you're right that celebrities do have valid opinions (and of course, I'm crossing into issues of freedom of speech when I say that they shouldn't express them). I guess what I really mean in this article is that people shouldn't listen to them and them alone, and even if we do listen to their opinions, we should evaluate motivations behind the endorsements. Donald Trump, for example, obviously doesn't want higher taxes for the rich. And Beyonce and Jay-Z are personal friends of the Obamas. Supplementing political facts that we receive as by-product with actual research is, of course, ideal.
ReplyDeleteSam, thank you for complimenting my writing voice! I can only hope I can still use it when writing a scholarly paper. There are several studies and other legitimate sources that talk about the components of credibility, which celebrities are most effective at persuasion, etc. If I were to expand on this topic I would definitely focus on that part. Thank you.
ReplyDelete