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Essay / Influence of Celebrity Media on Society - 1019
These celebrity blogs serve the interests of the powerful in various ways. Due to the high volume of celebrity and popular culture consumption, the influence they can have on society is enormous. In many ways, celebrity media creates a friendly and kind persona for societal elites, while simultaneously reinforcing divisions and petty feuds within the masses. By creating kind elites, it incentivizes the general population to no longer want to eliminate an elite class and pushes their desire and willingness to join the elite class. Pop culture is a reflection of society and will in turn progress on issues slowly alongside the people, but it will always stay as far away from the reactionary side as possible. For example, in the article "Nate Parker Won't Apologize for Rape Accusations in 60 Minutes Interview," Nate Parker's Christian faith is brought up when the article discusses his refusal to apologize for a sexual assault allegation in which he appears to have participated. Although Parker's innocence is not directly questioned or confirmed in the article, mentioning that he is a devout Christian makes it seem like he would not do such a thing. This protects reactionary views that women constantly lie about sexual assault and that the upper class tends to do no real harm. Both of these sentiments are extremely dangerous and would require frequent normalization to permeate into society, and this is where the influence of mass media comes into play for those who want to protect their reactionary views.