The Worst Essay Ever! (That I've had to write)

Critically analyse the differences between the ‘personality’ and the ‘celebrity’ produced by television, using specific case studies to illustrate your argument.
Written by Zoe Kendell-Taylor

The dictionary defines ‘celebrity’ and ‘personality’ quite similarly, with celebrity defined as ‘a famous or well known person’ and ‘personality’ in the context of media to mean ‘a person of considerable prominence’ – someone widely known and who stands out. So, the fundamental difference is that a personality is someone who has achieved something worthy of notation and establishment. Looking at ‘celebrity’ in more detail, celebrities are the ‘real people’ of the performers in which fans follow the lifestyle of through celebrity magazines, reality shows and interviews, where as ‘personality’ is more defined as the performer him/herself rather than the lifestyle itself, meaning that a personality is more then likely to be a celebrity as well as a ‘personality’.

In addition, the term ‘personality’ could be argued to be more of a specific term to ‘celebrity’. There are many forms of personality that are widely known throughout the media when presented with ‘…personality of the year’ award, the broader titles such as TV personality, sports personality, comedy personality, newspaper personality, music personality etc. The list also goes on into further sub categories. Famous people who are recognised by the media according to tmcentertainment.co.uk, these titles or similar include people who have earned personality status such as; ‘Sir Alan Sugar – business personality, Gordon Ramsey for food and cooking personality, Sir Terry Wogan for being a TV and Radio’ personality and many more. Sir Alan Sugar widely known for his appearances on television with presenting his reality show ‘The Apprentice’, Gordon Ramsey with a couple of reality shows related to cooking, such as ‘Hells Kitchen’ and Sir Terry Wogan for his performances on ‘BBC Radio 2’ as well as being on television too.

There are many arguments and conflicts to consider when defining the differences between ‘celebrities’ and ‘personalities’. Reality TV is a prime example. Reality TV shows such as ‘Big Brother’, ‘The Hills’ and ‘Shipwrecked’ are either reality shows about everyday life of a particular class, e.g. ‘The Hills’ following the lives of upper class families living in Beverley Hills, or reality shows involving competition, such as ‘X-Factor’ to seek the next best singer, or ‘Big Brother’ whom create the next pointless celebrity just by paying random people to stay in a house to do humiliating tasks, monitored twenty-four seven in order to avoid being ‘evicted’ by the public voting them out of the ‘Big Brother’ house.

‘Big Brother’ is probably the most prominent example to use. Excluding Big Brother specials ‘Celebrity Big Brother’, as already well established celebrities enter ‘the house’, as briefly mentioned before, the show sends in a selection of ‘normal’ unknown people who have to spend weeks in a house, during which they cannot leave the house unless evicted from the audience, or because the contestants have broken serious rules.
Once ‘Big Brother’ finishes a series, the housemates then become known as celebrities because they are highly recognised by the public, and it is because of this, magazines make a fortune out of their fandom as people like to find out what the housemates are doing now they are out of the house, and just as magazines or TV interviews make money out of doing covers on ex-housemates from the Big Brother house, the ‘celebrity’ status is received, and the ex-housemates will then be asked to do more media related things, including much involved charity work. Jade Goody is a prime example of someone who has achieved celebrity status since her time in the Big Brother house. She became famous for not really doing anything, and only really starting to do anything worthwhile in the public eye (such as charity work and so-forth) after she had become well established from winning Big Brother in the third series of the reality show, even then Goody not doing anything in particular extraordinary as many non-celebrity people carry out similar charity work, even above the achievement of Goody herself. Jade Goody is a prime example of the ‘manufactured celebrity’, and because her celebrity status became manufactured through the media, her personality then defined her stereotype in the media.

It was shortly after Jade Goody’s celebrity status that Goody became known as a TV Personality, which some could argue that Goody couldn’t really be classed as a ‘personality’ as at the time Goody had not done anything worth recognising with ‘considerable prominence’. Then with the entire scandal of Goody becoming labelled a racist after her second appearance on another Big Brother series, Goody quickly became infamous, and it was only because of her sickness of getting cervical cancer that Goody won over the public’s empathy when she became a more favoured celebrity, and well established TV personality, in which still could be argued that she cannot really be labelled as a ‘personality’ as she hasn’t really done anything notable, despite the occasional charity work and scandals on Celebrity Big Brother in which she would not have even achieved if she had not become a contestant on the original Big Brother in the first place.

Despite this argument, in contradiction, Goody has followed the general traits of a television personality. Her fame has been coherent and consistent, she is known and only known as herself through television, her personality has remained familiar in her traits and accessible, and has led her on to other opportunities in television such as other reality shows such as ‘Celebrity Driving School’ and ‘Hells Kitchen’.

From this example, reality TV seems to lead unknown people into fame, finishing unknowns as celebrities, becoming well established people for no real apparent or important reason. These types of performers who become celebrities when they get involved in reality TV shows and are in the limelight, but don’t really do anything spectacular or worthwhile for the public eye compared to other celebrities who have adopted TV personalities such as the trio in ‘Top Gear’ who are known for their motor vehicle skills and knowledge in which the public gain something worthwhile, such as people with a genuine interest in motors can find out what are the better motors out there, or debate what the motor trio put forward to the public with their interactive live audience. ­

Some forms of ‘personality’ can be described as someone famous who when on screen is always ‘acting’ compared to a celebrity, who is famous for what they do, compared to personalities who are ‘in character’ as their personality until they are out of character and in their celebrity status. Looking at the article ‘The television personality system: televisual stardom revisited after film theory’, Lury observes ‘personality and the actor are...entangled, and individuals may oscillate from one position to another. The actor may perform as a celebrity when they guest on a game show, whereas the celebrity may act in a dramatic fiction. On top of this...the personality is always in some sense ‘acting’’ This means, as mentioned earlier that personalities who are renowned for certain characteristics are always acting, compared to celebrities who are constantly being studied for who they are as real people as opposed to the characters they play in their performances in which they become famous for. An example of this would be TV presenters Ant and Dec, whom always act as cheeky, childish Jordy boys, this act only changing when performing as actors in films when they are playing alternative characters to themselves (such as ‘Byker Grove’ and ‘Alien Autopsy’).

Other forms of personality contradict the above point, for example, Gordon Ramsey post his football days has always been known to the public as a unnecessary swearing, but amazing chef, having been awarded cooking personality in the past, his persona has always remained the same, not needing to put on an ‘act’ every time he appears on screen.

It could also be argued that the meanings of the terms ‘celebrity’ and ‘personality’ are too similar to draw up a distinct difference between both words in the concept of television, and that there are only subtle differences in the definitions of the two concepts, therefore any clear and distinct difference in meaning are not strong enough to create these distinctive differences and that both media terms are merely synonyms of each other.

It has been suggested, according to the ‘television personality system’ article that there are differences in personalities themselves, which looking at these three differences can aid in comparing to the concept of celebrity. By looking at lifestyles and publications amongst other factors, these differences can be identified in more detail.

A difference that could be noted between celebrity and personality is that the celebrity status looks at the lifestyle of the particular celebrity outside of celebrity’s performance that has made them famous in which magazines and newspapers that follow the style on gossip of the celebrity’s lives, such as ‘Heat’ magazine or ‘Closer’. Personality style publications such as DIY or cookery would more likely be published in instructive books to do with the personality’s particular talent – such as DIY or cookery as mentioned above, whereas there is an equal mix and similarities in publications of autobiographies and biographies.

With the manufacturing of celebrities becoming more common among the reality TV shows, personalities in the media can be seen more of a profession, compared to celebrities which is more lifestyle based, and there is more pressure on personalities to keep on top of their persona of who they are known for where celebrities can phase in and out of different professions between acting, modelling, singing etc. The public make the celebrity, whereas personalities are made by the persona of the particular personality, which makes the job more of a profession in comparison to that of the celebrity. Personality examples of this form of personality would include show hosts such as Jonathon Ross or Paul O’Grady etc.

Some forms of personalities remain with the same personality off-screen as they do on-screen, compared to celebrities that are generally diversely different on-screen compared to off-screen. In example of an actor, this is obvious, as a celebrity on-screen would be in character for whatever show they are acting on, and off-screen would be their normal selves.
The ‘Television personality system’ article also suggests to split personality into further sub categories of meaning. ‘Vocational personality’ and ‘televisual personality’. The differences between these two concepts are that a ‘vocational personality’ is a performer who does not just use television as their continual fixed position in their career. The mention article uses Cilla Black and Graham Norton as examples. They are well known for their performances as presenters now on television, however, they are also known for singing and comedy meaning that they have both been vocational performers at different points in their career. Televisual personality is defined by a performer’s lack of skill other then presenting on television. An example of a televisual personality would be Jeremy Kyle, who has ever only presented his television show ‘The Jeremy Kyle show’ where he simply talks through the problems of the guests that appear on the show. The reason for these sub categories is to distinguish between personality types in other ways other than the titles that are available for personality status, as well as distinguishing subtle differences between televisual personality and these other personality statuses and the difference between celebrity, however, Cilla Black, Graham Norton and Jeremy Kyle would all be considered celebrities themselves.

Taking into consideration these sub categories explored in ‘personality’, there isn’t really that much distinguishable differences in ‘celebrity’, so long as someone is famous enough in the public eye for people to follow the celebrity’s lifestyle or work, there is no denying that they are a celebrity. No sub-category is needed, but an open debate parallel with ‘personality’ and ‘celebrity’ would also include ‘stardom’, and the differences between ‘stardom’ and ‘celebrity’. ‘Stardom’ being more related to film, whereas ‘celebrity’ often stems its fame from television, similar to personality which is more directly affiliated with television, with some exceptions such as sport etc, personality often isn’t as distinctly recognised in the film industry compared to ‘stars’ or ‘celebrity’.

However, to draw up a conclusion upon the distinctive differences is difficult, as there are little resources available to explain in-depth the differences between the terms ‘celebrity’ and ‘personality’, hence how the question has lead to many contradictions when researching well established people and whether they have ‘celebrity’ or ‘personality’ status, and any information that is available does not give any indication of a concrete distinction.

As mentioned before, little resources on the subject of distinguishing between ‘celebrity’ and ‘personality’ begs to question whether it is actually that significant to even argue the differences when both words are too similar in meaning to each other, and debating the differences often end up contradicting individual points. It can be agreed that ‘personality’ itself can be differed from celebrity with its many sub-categories and meanings compared to celebrity which seems apparent through futile research to find any remotely significant differences to provide sub-categories, personality is a much broader term when compared to celebrities because of these sub-categories. The public also create a subtle difference between ‘celebrity’ and ‘personality’, as the lifestyle of the celebrity is often seeked out to follow by fans, compared to a television personality which doesn’t look at the performer’s life style because they are in character of themselves as how they want to be perceived, whereas a celebrity is exposed for everything about them, often qualities about them being published to the public that they would rather not be exposed to the public eye. In addition, the modern celebrity is often a manufacture by the media system, compared to personality which has not needed to rely on the media to make the performers successful, the media rely on the personality to create their success.


Bibliography
James Bennett, 2008, ‘The Television Personality System: televisual stardom revisited after film theory’, Oxford University Press

http://www.tmcentertainment.co.uk/speaker-index.html?speakertypeid=13, 27/04/2009, ‘TV Personalities’ (used to reference current celebrity personalities)