Why is it difficult to be famous? Full psychological appraisals and constant support for instant celebrities of reality shows.

Final contestants of UK reality show The X Factor will undergo full psychological appraisals, writes Leigh Holmwood from The Guardian. Production company TalkbackThames will also provide psychologists on set throughout the show’s run. This is a result of the criticism of producers for not providing enough support to contestants, resulting in the much covered collapse of Susan Boyle and other less famous participants. But why is it so difficult to cope with the impact of instant fame and 24/7 exposure? Let’s look at how celebrities report their experience of being famous.

Psychologists will be on set of The X Factor throughout the show’s run and not only on call as in previous shows, Holmwood writes. This change follows the decision of the series creator, Simon Cowell, to make contestants audition in front of an audience of 3,000 at arenas across UK. This has raised the bar of the show, said Louis Walsh, one of the show’s judges. But it is also a far more pressured environment than the previous format of auditioning in front of the show’s four judges. Richard Holloway, the executive producer of The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent (also a reality show of TalkbackThames), said that another source hugely increasing the pressure on contestants is the growth in internet videosharing and social networking websites, which had driven interest in reality shows. “What we learned from the Susan Boyle situation was that she had very little pressure from the show, as she only performed three times, but that the pressure came from the huge interest in her,” he said. Boyle’s collapse may have in part prompted the producers’ decision that the final 24 contestants of X Factor have to undertake full psychological appraisals to judge their fitness to compete.

No one is prepared for fame

But why is the big interest shown in reality show contestants a problem? Why is it difficult to be famous? Donna Rockwell from USA and David C. Giles from UK interviewed 15 well-known American celebrities from various spheres. They told them that the experience of being famous is something for which no one is prepared. Many celebrities reported themselves ill equipped for the deluge of attention that comes with fame, the authors write. What looks so inviting from the outside is experienced from within as a struggle.

A major theme running through every research participant’s experience of being famous was a loss of personal privacy, write Rockwell and Giles. High levels of fame necessitate a loss of privacy and a compensatory inability to move freely about the world. Celebrities have to take this into account when planning their schedule, hoping to avoid the probing lens of the celebrity press. Once fame hits, celebrities describe being bombarded by expectations from all quarters: friends, family, work associates, and strangers. The celebrity is left feeling obliged to fulfil others’ insatiable expectations, while feeling guilty when they are inevitably not met. Perhaps this is the reason of the concern that was raised by Chris Thompson, the chief medical officer at the Priory where Boyle was admitted: sudden fame could destroy a person’s self-esteem if they were not given adequate support, reports Holmwood. On the other side, there is a narcissistic danger of celebrity, the slippery slope of an unchecked ego which is boosted by the adoration of masses. Famous participants in the research of Rockwell and Giles find it difficult to balance between succumbing to narcissistic tendencies and maintaining a grounded and empathetic self.

Instant celebrities suddenly switch from anonymity to fame

Perhaps the problem of reality show contestants is that they suddenly switch from anonymity to celebrity. They do not have time to adapt to their instant fame as traditional celebrities who have build their success over time. And we have to take into account that even traditional celebrities find it hard to adapt to fame. Like one famous participant of the research of Donna Rockwell and David C. Giles stated: “Fame is like death, it happens only once.” The researchers identified four phases through which a celebrity has to progress for the sake of emotional survival: the first is a phase of love and hate in which celebrities experience pleasure of the admiration and distress of the sudden recognition. The lure of fame in the second phase is addictive as it becomes hard to imagine living without it. As attention towards the celebrity increases he or she is forced to accept the good and the bad sides of being famous, some of which were listed above: loss of personal privacy, increase in expectations, and the danger of narcissistic tendencies. Only after accepting that also bad sides “come with the territory” can the celebrity adopt healthy responses to fame. As a research participant stated: “I think that through time you are able to take fame and put it in its proper place; as you mature, you begin to feel like, well, it’s not that important.”

After listing the difficulties that instant celebrities face, we could ask ourselves: is it ethical to expose participants of reality shows to so much pressure? Producers of The X Factor have provided the ongoing support of psychologists and full psychological appraisals of the final 24 contestants to face this concern. But is it ethical for psychologists to help contestants endure these conditions of extreme pressure? A producer of Croatian Big Brother told at the conference Psychology – Media – Ethics that if no psychologist would offer his professional support in the show, the show’s guidelines would not permit to make the show at all. So is the answer to this ethic dilemma a withdrawal of psychologists from reality shows? No matter what you think about that, it is certain that at least some tails of population need special care. Holly Steel, the 10-year old singer who broke down in tears during a live Britain’s Got Talent semi-final, instigated a governmental review into whether children on TV talent shows need better protection, writes Holmwood. Producers of the current X Factor also took psychological advice about a 21-year-old contestant, Scott James, who has Asperger’s syndrome. Judge Walsh doesn’t believe that James will be able to take the strain of appearing, but thinks he has the right to try: “Is he under too much pressure? I think it has to be his choice.”

References:

Holmwood, L. Reality check: X Factor contestants to face judgement on their mental health. The Guardian 19 August 2009.

Rockwell, D., & Giles, D.C. (2009, in press). Being-in-the-world of celebrity: The phenomenology of fame. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology.

Recently I have watched in the cinema the film Gola resnica/Naked truth, which is advertised as a media experiment and the biggest candid camera in the history of Slovenia. The film documents media reports about the fake presidential candidate Arthur Štern, PhD, and reactions of people to these reports.

Film makers Franci Kek and Vojko Anzeljc have made an agreement with the eccentric Atrur Štern that he will apply at the presidential elections in 2007. The interest of media was provided by Štern alone, who has publicly advocated his provocative views and made unconventional approaches at press conferences. In addiction film makers have launched to media photos and a fake home-made-film, on which Štern and the stripper Jasmina Ržen from Slovene Big Brother appear (she was an actress in the film Gola resnica/Naked truth). Because of the photos and the home-made-film one could think of a love affair between them. Media have of course grasped at this material and launched sensational news which have come to the front page of tabloids. The home-made-film has received more views on internet than the agreement of Slovene and Croatian president about the settlement of the border at the sea, which was current at the time.

The film Naked truth succeeded to show “what are the media ready to report as news in order to get the highest viewing rates,” was written in the presentation of the film. Film makers also explain that media are dependant from the viewing and reading rates. Media users are much more interested in excesses, sex and blood than in serious themes. Media follow this trend: they have written about the political views of Štern in less visible ways, while they have reported about his excesses with big titles and photos. Also the big viewing rate of the home-made-film shows the exceptional interest of public for sensational news. Professor Karmen Erjavec from the Faculty of social sciences in Ljubljana, Slovenia, has explained the opposite: media are those which create the taste and demand of people for the questionable content and not vice versa. Also Samo Uhan from the same faculty, PhD, has explained for Studio 12 that in the process of social construction of reality people become aware of those topics that media present as important (media can achieve that just by assigning media space to these topics). So the role of media in showing sensational news becomes even more questionable, in spite of the opinion of film makers that media have reported correctly about the fake presidential candidate.   

A part of the film has shown how people perceive reality. Film makers have used optical and other sensory illusions to prove how quickly our senses make a mistake and our mind makes a wrong interpretation of a picture. Directly speaking to the audience they have induced us to think which information that derives from our senses, is true, and if we can really trust it. This was a good introduction to the reflection if we can trust information in media although they many times intentionally (by creating a false gossip) or unintentionally (when they do not verify a presented fact) misled. However, because of the long monologues of the narrator the film seemed static. The question is also if viewers that have never before thought about the concept of social reality, succeeded to understand the above mentioned message. As the film has begun with the topic of understanding reality, it has also ended with it: at the end we were encouraged to think about who we are if we extinguish our senses. Again this end was rather static and the public became agitated. I think that cinema is not really the right place to think about ourselves and the endless philosophical questions of the type “I think; therefore I am (Descartes).”

In addition to the media experiment with the fake presidential candidate the film has shown reactions of people to fake newspaper articles. Franci Kek, the screenwriter and actor in Gola resnica/Naked truth, has put on an old police uniform and made several candid cameras. He showed to people the fake newspaper articles in order to support his claims that were far from common sense. However, in my mind, candid cameras succeeded not really to demonstrate the power of printed media, but rather the power of authority in uniform.

I think that it is very good that in Slovenia the idea was born and the courage was found to make a media experiment (and that also money for the production of a film has been collected). However, the film Gola resnica/Naked truth has failed to approximate to its model Fahrenheit 9/11 or to Zeitgeist. Also the film was not exactly a comic documentary as the film makers have defined it: there were only few moments when the public was laughing out loudly. On the other side there were many moralizing moments because of which the film maybe lost some of its possible fans. The warning at the beginning if we want to face the truth that is offered by the film was already seen in the reality show Big FATHER by the same production group Mangart. Moreover, the blog Had has opened the ethical question about the collaboration of the internet portal Vest in the spreading of false information (the portal published the fake home-made-film of the presidential candidate and his supposed love).

When media report in a sensational way about a suicide, more people kill themselves in the next two weeks. And more people do that with the new, sensational method, about which media writes or talks, has explained for Studio 12 Žiga Valetič, the author of a book about suicide. Many times the negative impact of media is too emphasised and moralistically approached. But when we look at the impact of media on suicide, we see that media contents can be really fatal.

About one million of people worldwide commit suicide every year. Five to six hundred suicides occur in Slovenia, which has two million inhabitants. In absolute figures this may not seem a lot, but suicide rates give another picture: in Europe an average of 10 suicides occur per 100.000 people, while in Slovenia there is an average of 25-30 people who commit suicide. Studio 12 has highlighted this problem in the January evening Suicide- a conversation can save lives.

The media play an important role in the prevention of suicide. If a journalist refers to verified facts about the phenomenon of suicide and reports about a specific case of suicide in a non sensational way this may prevent the stigmatization of suicide. If the contribution includes tips on how to recognize suicide intents of people close to us and the addresses where people who are considering suicide may call for help, media can have a great preventive role. Unfortunately, most media talk about suicide in an excessive way, said to Studio 12 Samo Uhan from Faculty of social sciences in Ljubljana. There is less and less responsible reporting in his opinion. He attributes the causes to the editorial policy, which is linked to the interests of owners.

Media report about suicide in a sensational way when they mention ways and means by which an individual has committed suicide. Descriptions and pictures of the place of suicide can attract media receivers, too. The reason for suicide is often shown in a simplistic and one-sided manner and people who have committed suicide are depicted as victims. Such media reports can not trigger an epidemic of suicide, but can push over the edge someone that is already thinking about it, Slavko Ziherl, professor of psychiatry, explains to Studio 12. Because of sensational media reports suicide may seem a heroic and romantic action. Individuals with suicide intents may want to end their life with a new, sensational method or in the way a famous person did it. They may wish to commit suicide in a well known place, as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is, where thousand persons have already died. The phenomenon of copycat suicides got the name Werther effect after the novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. In this novel of Goethe, young Werhter shoots himself because of an ill-fated love. A wave of suicide by the same method among young men appeared shortly after the outcome of the novel in 1774.
It is also dangerous if media indicate unverified facts about suicide, warns Samo Uhan, PhD. Media often mention that holidays increase the risk for suicide because people feel more lonely in this period. This is a myth, but it may become true. Media receivers in fact believe to this forecast and can also behave in accordance with it.

To avoid the negative effects of media on suicide the World Health Organization (WHO) has introduced in 2000 guidelines on how to report about suicide: “Generalizations based on small figures require particular attention, and expressions such as ‘suicide epidemic’ or ‘the place with the highest suicide rate in the world’ should be avoided.” Among the recommendations about how to report of a particular suicide case we can find: “Photographs of the deceased, of the method used and of the scene, are to be avoided. Front page headlines are never the right place for suicide reports.” WHO recommends these guidelines to be included in suicide prevention programs in every country.

And here comes the problem: in Slovenia the national program for prevention of suicide has not been accepted yet. Although written by experts in 2003, it still lies forgotten in the drawers the Ministry of Health. The program of reduction of road accident victims has effectively halved these figures. In contrast suicide, which is a major public health problem in our country, is neglected. Samo Uhan, PhD, explains this absurd: “Traffic accidents are common and acceptable; we can all be their victims. Suicide on the other side is pushed in the intimate sphere, perhaps even in the field of mental illness. Suicide seems therefore less easy to control.” Professor Ziherl, which together with professor Onja Tekavčič Grad leads a working group for media at the Slovenian Association for Suicide Prevention, claims that journalists of black chronicles are very satisfied with their explanation of how to report about suicide. Probably would journalists therefore also take into account the instructions that are included in the proposal for the national program of suicide prevention, which is already too long waiting for better times.

Unbelievable spaciousness, immeasurable distances, inconceivable infinity,… Earth- so beautiful in her smallness. And on Earth the man, who does not realize his littleness and wants to be big, Big Brother, Big Mother, God,… Europe, Slovenia- also in this heaven now governs Big Brother… But now arrives Big FATHER, who does not lock youth in tins and does not make guidable clones from them… Big Father sends youth on the travel, on the travel of self-realization.

This introduction welcomes viewers of the first reality show of Slovene national television. Makers of this show describe Big Father as the battle of David and Goliath against the more powerful brother. Big Father has sent two girls and two guys on the travel from Ljubljana, Slovenia, over Trieste and Venice, Italy, to Greece, from where they will continue their voyage. Big Father is watching their everyday experiences during the travel and is not too serious and educational at all, although it wants to be an alternative to reality shows on commercial televisions. In the fourth episode I have seen participants playing games on a beach in Greece, their visit to a natural park with a beautiful river and back on the beach the evaluation of their day in the light of candles.

The Foundation with the Head on the Party, the programme for children and youth of Slovene national television, the production group Mangart and the creative team Majestic 5 have created Big Father as an answer to more and more violent content of reality shows on Slovene commercial televisions. Above all the Slovene Big Brother 2 has started many polemics because of physical aggression between its participants. The participants of a round table of theology students have recently discussed about the influence of violent content on children and youth. Teachers report that pupils of elementary schools imitate violent scenes in reality shows. This is not a surprise, because children have more difficulties in differentiating between fantasy and reality on television. Only ten years old children differentiate between both approximately as well as adults, but they still use also content from fictional programs as information about everyday life. Children have even more difficulties in judging reality shows, because they are a mixture of fantasy and reality: cameras give us the assurance that we are following the behaviour of real persons, but on the other hand participants are following a scenario from the makers of the show (participants of Big Brother are for example regularly solving some tasks). Also Karmen Erjavec from the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana has defined reality shows as a hybrid genre, which is composed from elements of competition, soap opera and documentary.

Karmen Erjavec has pointed as problematic also the message of reality shows that people are successful just when they are seen in the media world. And the success has become a necessity- the modern neoliberal ideology tells us, that the society won’t help us, so we have to provide for ourselves, with whatever means. Therefore participants on the conference Media-psychology-ethics in Poreč, Croatia, have exposed as controversial also the contribution of psychologists in reality shows. They have agreed that psychologists can help to prevent psychological damage of participants with selecting them in the first place, counselling them during the show, being at disposition for crisis interventions and helping them after the end of the show. Doing so a psychologist helps participants to persist in the show, which contributes to the success of the show. A psychologist who collaborates in a reality show is consequently indirectly responsible for making of new versions of successful reality shows. In Slovenia the psychologist Maja Fesel Kamenik has contributed in some reality shows.

More about Big FATHER on http://www.bigfather.si/index.php

(just in Slovene language).