Kim Kardashian in Public Eye
Celebrity has become a staple in households. The big growth in social media platforms, reality shows and mobile applications – all has made celebrity news and gossip more common at home, school and workplace. In sharing entertaining information (aka infotainment) users of social media and viewers of TV reality shows compete in sharing and spreading celebrity news and information. In recent years, Kim Kardashian – and her sisters – has emerged as power on social media platforms and TV among all age segments. This rise is partly justified by reasons related to rise of social media, partly by how Kardashian sells her image and partly by fans and viewers falling into specific age segments. The influence, if one could say, of Kardashian on U.S. popular culture and beyond is reflected in media, society and public life in general. In literally shooting and filming each and every aspect of her "social life", Kardashian projects into public eye an image, more or less, made by her mother and sisters. The purpose of why Kardashian chooses to be ubiquitous is beyond present purposes. The main focus is laid, instead, on how Kardashian manages to be in public eye and, apparently, everywhere. This paper aims, accordingly, to explore ways Kardashian or her business manager uses to keep a constant show of appearances in public eye.
The 2000s is an age of self-entitlement and personal interests. The growing presence of social media platforms and TV reality shows offer diverse platforms for celebrities for personal branding purposes in addition to conventional programs on cable TV and more formal, online channels of celebrity news. Predictably, celebrities head for social media and reality TV shows for more presence in public eye (Kirst, 2015). Kardashian is not different.
These "moments" captured in a book show, if anything, how Kardashian keeps her public image. More importantly, Kardashian "keeps up" her public image by constant posts of (naked) image and videos and comments across different social media platforms. In 2016, for example, Kardashian reaches a 61.5 million follower mark on Instagram and 34 million followers on Twitter (Sales). But who are Kardashian's followers? In order to answer such a question, a deeper look is required into why Kardashian is followed first of all.
In a 2007 survey by Pew Research Center, 51% of 18-to-25 year olds are found to have becoming famous as most or second-most important goal in life compared to 64% saying first or second most important goal in life is becoming rich (Sales). The surveyed girls belong to a generation raised in a culture of reality TV shows highlighting material wealth and exaggerated forms of beauty of young women. The Princess cult created, accordingly, by reality TV shows found one most adequate representation in Keeping up With the Kardashians show. By boasting signs of wealth and beauty in her Calabasas, California mansion, Kardashian represents a perfect example of a princess model most girls look up to as a role model.
This social media presence is supported by more emphasis on public appearance in different settings. For example, Kardashian does not only boast her "beauty" and "wealth" on social media postings and Keeping up With the Kardashians but also ensures her off-location scenes are captured and posted immediately online (Blair, 2015). This obsession for each and every detail reflects, again, a general obsession of a gossip and celebrity news culture. Therefore, in "keeping up" with news of Kardashian, fans are in fact satisfying personal needs of fame and wealth, a need Kardashian knows all too well how to exploit.
More broadly, Kardashian's use of social media and reality TV uncovers a general shift in how entertainment news is presented to public. Specifically, paparazzi agencies are increasingly making use of online content, including content shared across social media, in order to satisfy growing needs of younger, Millennial generations to consume visually rich celebrity news (McNamara, 2011). Indeed, Kardashian does not only appear to be spreading her own news but her day-to-day activities appear to be handled out of control by a number of independent and/or corporate paparazzi. This pattern is, in fact, global stretching one celebrity's news well beyond her immediate cultural setting. Probably, Kardashian's global celebrity status is justified not by her own publicity efforts but by global content marketers aiming at marketing celebrity news for profit-generating purposes by means completely different from ones pursued by celebrities and for parties who can have publicity purposes well beyond one celebrity's fame. The focus becomes, accordingly, not on a specific celebrity's personal or professional life but on a state of fame maintained around whoever comes into celebrity spotlight.
The decreasing popularity of Keeping up With the Kardashians further emphasizes why one specific celebrity is not important per se but her status. Therefore, one would not be really surprised by rising and receding flows of criticism of Kardashian as a bad role model for younger generations of women (Falzone, 2016). By posing in nude postures and exaggerating specific lifestyle patterns, Kardashian is, to critics, a frivolous, superficial and shallow model young women should avoid at all costs. Moreover, Kardashian is criticized for not having a talent at all (Sales). Indeed, Kardashian – and, of course, her sisters – do not appear to show any specific talent for which they are famous. Yet, being characteristically ungifted, Kardashian shows particular talent in being present everywhere across social media by featuring each and every aspect of her personal life.
In addition to featuring virtually nothing but remains wildly famous, Kardashian leads a life much controlled by her business manager, her mother. In seeking celebrity for her family, Kardashian's mother manages her daughter's public appearances. In so doing, Kardashian's mother is, in fact, representing a new role played by what is so called "helicopter" mothers. By monitoring each and every aspect of her daughter's life, Kardashian's mother is a very common example of modern day mothers who "market" daughters for different reasons including, most notably, fame and money. Indeed, Kardashian appears to keep her almost idol status by an excessive focus on personal details which matter most to would-be Kardashians.
Therefore, in keeping up her public image, Kardashian can be said to have both control and lack of control. By choosing which specific "scenes" of her life to be made public on social media, Kardashian exercises a relative ability to control her public image. By making her personal images public, Kardashian is no longer in control of her image which becomes subject to all forms of interpretation by both general public and paparazzi.
The consumption of Kardashian remains, after all, most important to how celebrity news is consumed generally in recent years. The rise of social media, mobile applications and reality TV shows has all placed Kardashian at center stage of public consumption of celebrity news. The acts Kardashian chooses (or not) to show for all to see in public are not important per se. Instead, acts of personal publicizing and branding are far more important, particularly for younger generations all too ready to be famous and rich.
The Kardashian celebrity status is apt to peak. Similar to all celebrities, Kardashian has a specific fame limelight period. The Kardashian phenomenon is, however, different compared to other celebrities. Leveraged by social media and sustained by very personal and (nudity) life details, Kardashian has little future room for further growth as a celebrity, particularly given her lack of a specific gift or talent. If anything, constancy is an enemy of media attention. Short by default, media attention cannot remain focused for long on one specific celebrity and, for that matter, one group. This is particularly more applicable for social media. Compared to conventional media platforms, social media is far shorter in attention span and hence inevitability of Kardashian's image decline in public eye. Still, Kardashian has been able, so far, to maintain a public interest in, largely, her revealed body parts.
REFERENCES
Blair, O. (2015). Kim Kardashian-West re-shares body shaming comment on social media. The Independent, 1 December [Online]. Available from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/kim-kardashian-west-re-shares-body-shaming-comment-on-social-media-a6754956.html [Accessed: 27th April, 2016]
Falzone, D. (2016). Social media stars like Kim Kardashian and Emily Ratajkowski bad for young women? Fox News, 21 April [Online]. Available from http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2016/04/21/social-media-stars-like-kim-kardashian-ad-emily-ratajkowski-band-for-young.html?intcmp=features [Accessed: 27th April, 2016]
Kirst, S. (2015). The Kardashian's Social Media Influence. Forbes, 17 December [Online]. Available from http://www.forbes.com/sites/seamuskirst/2015/12/17/the-kardashians-social-media-influence/#1bc2a729430f [Accessed: 27th April, 2016]
McNamara, K. (2011). The paparazzi industry and new media: The evolving production and consumption of celebrity news and gossip websites. International Journal of Cultural Studies [Online]. Sage Journals. doi: 10.1177/1367877910394567 [Accessed: 27th April, 2016]
Sales, N. J. (2016). 'You inspire me to be hot and famous': how Kim Kardashian became a teen idol. The Guardian, 25 February [Online]. Available from http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/feb/25/kim-kardashian-teens-book-celebrity-social-media-american-girls [Accessed: 27th April, 2016]
