Kim Kardashian

Over the years, celebrities have become a muse for the target public. "Celebrity taught generations how to engage and use consumer culture to 'make' oneself. In a number of treatises on advertising and consumer culture, cultural critics have identified how the individual had to be taught how to consume and to recognise the value of consumption for their own benefits." (Marshall, 2010)

An example of a celebrity that has such power to influence the target public is Kim Kardashian. Her Instagram page is full of advertisements on her clothing line, Skims.

According to observations from a journal article by Marshall (2010), there are 6 ways celebrities in particular, can perceive themselves to their audience.

In Kim Kardashian's case, she exposes her private life publicly through her reality TV show "Keeping Up with the Kardashians". This act considers her as a 'public self', in which "celebrities are under constant and regular surveillance and thus they are more mundane and sometimes more personal activities are the subject of a gaze." (Marshall, 2010).

Celebrities allow themselves to expose their lives further in order to gain following as well as interaction with the audience. As said above, her presence is very calculated to promote her products, and ensures "there is at least a connection to his followers no matter where they search online."

Hence, Kim Kardashian could also fall under 'the intercommunicative self'. She uses images that emerge from her private life in order to construct and control a complete persona.

The second level of Marshall's observation is the parasocial self, in which celebrities stay connected in a way in a way to establish relationships with her target publics online.

By showing her private life, it gives a superficial sense that they are one of our close friends. Her level of engagement with friends as fans is often related as she shares stories of how she could not have a baby. A fan, which is anonymously stated, acted as a surrogate to help her. This allows other fans to still have hope that their favourite celebrity could notice them, hence creating this delusional fantasy through a superficial connection.

Her selfies on Instagram, as shown above, signals both a narcissistic turn as well as an endorsement of her paid promotions. All of these have a commonality of the same pose, this encourages young teens to aspire to be like her. Criticisms though often apply as some products that were endorsed are staged.

Celebrities have influence over their target publics through their platform with millions of following. It is up to them to either use it for a good or bad cause. But ultimately, social media reflects the celebrity and how they want to be perceived publicly.

Source: Marshall, PD 2010, ‘The promotion and presentation of the self: celebrity as marker of presentational media’, Celebrity Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 36-44