do celebrites hold social responsibility?
I suppose most people by now would have heard of the 8.9 magnitude earthquake which just hit Japan today, and the accompanying 10m tsunami which smashed into the coast. With #prayforjapan trending on twitter, I was reading through all the tweets of the Japanese celebrities i follow, and was oddly reminded of this topic debated tons of times during GP - the social responsibility of celebrities.
When posed with such a question, people are apt to bring up the oft-quoted examples of Lindsay Lohan or Amy Winehouse (or is the most recent one John Galliano? haha) as a show of bad celebrity behaviour - and how because they are famous, they hold civic responsibility as role models to well, not be so wild - and i guess there is a point to that. But another side to it is that celebrities do not hold a responsibility to be perfect role models - after all, they're human people. The verdict is out on this, but I think we can safely say that fame comes with certain expectations attached. There's a reason why Japanese talent agencies are so Nazi-like in their enforcement of imeeji, or image, to the point where many idols are forced to hide their relationships and even habits like smoking in order not to destroy a carefully constructed image in the media. An excellent example of the enforcement of imeeji is the suspension and eventual demotion of a couple of NEWS members some time ago for underage drinking. They were never allowed to return to their group, effectively destroying their career in an impulsive moment (or a careless slip where they were captured by the media, but anyway).
But returning to the point about the earthquake in Japan today, I am equally impressed by voluntary demonstrations of civic responsibility on the part of celebrities - in particular the fact that some celebrities recognise that their fame has immense influence and they can reach out to hundreds of thousands, even millions of people with what they do, and knowing that, they do the right thing. Not because people expect them to, like their agency expects them to not get married till they're 40, but because they want to. Which goes back to today's earthquake, as I found out through Twitter. I first heard of the earthquake through a tweet by Utada Hikaru, which simply stated that there was a huge earthquake and the damage was pretty bad. Following that, what impressed me immensely was the amazing retweeting speed and ability of Shirota Yuu, a Japanese actor, who retweeted (and is still retweeting as of now) tens of tweets from other Japanese users. And not just useless, mundane tweets, but tweets to help people, such as locations of safehouses, AED devices, warnings to avoid tapwater and pleas of help, like one i'll translate here: "I can't get out of my house without a helicopter. Please help. There are also people trapped next door. Help us, please." Maybe somewhere, amongst his fans, there'll be someone who knows of a helicopter (or maybe he's flying a helicopter!) and can help that person out there. Utada Hikaru continued to tweet again later in English, to inform foreigners along the Japanese coastline of tsunami warnings, in case they didn't understand the Japanese. These two have completely bowled me over with their willingness to help, knowing that their thousands of followers on Twitter will have a far greater, widespread reach than that of fifty followers on a normal person's twitter. Because of that, they retweet other people's requests for help and information, knowing that their information will find more people, and that will help more people.
This reminds me of another Japanese celebrity, Sakurai Sho of Arashi, who took up a newscaster job in 2006 and holds a special corner to explain news issues in layman's terms, because he wanted to make use of his Economics degree. Beyond that, he's also mentioned that the reason why he decided to become a newscaster was because he knew of his influence amongst the younger generation (at that time Arashi's popularity was booming amongst tweens, teens and the twentysomethings), and he wanted to use it to allow them to gain an interest in current affairs.
And then I wonder about the more well-touted examples of celebrity 'good behaviour', such as Angelina Jolie or Madonna adopting lots of kids and Oprah Winfrey raising tons of money to set up a girls' school in Africa. And well, maybe Hollywood does blow it up a lot or something, but many of these efforts, while laudable, don't seem to have as widespread a reach as what I'm seeing here with Shirota Yuu and Utada Hikaru. Maybe it's also because of the power of social media, but these people are using their fame to reach out to people. Maybe Angelina Jolie can inspire people to understand the plight of orphaned children, but then what is the next step from there? Are people sufficiently moved to donate to help these kids, or adopt them? Is there something they are trying to tell the masses, their fans, with their actions? We can admire them, but can we take the next step from there? Is there a more effective way to use one's fame to achieve a change in the world? Are celebrities expected to use their fame to change the world?
Whatever the answers to those questions are, my response is that while celebrities are not necessarily expected to wield civic responsibility, those who understand the implications of their fame and the power it has to reach out to other people, and then wield it effectively, are celebrities that I admire. Like the example of Shirota Yuu and Utada Hikaru, and maybe even Sakurai Sho. Now these efforts will probably never make it into the entertainment news. Few people are going to read the headline 'SHIROTA YUU RETWEETS'. But yet these celebrities are doing this because they know they can help people with what they do. In the West, big-time sensational efforts like epic fundraisers will hit the news, but these little efforts won't. These celebrities aren't doing it for the fame. They're doing it, because they recognise the power of their fame, and they're using it effectively.
That, in my opinion, is celebrities showing civic and social responsibility.
When posed with such a question, people are apt to bring up the oft-quoted examples of Lindsay Lohan or Amy Winehouse (or is the most recent one John Galliano? haha) as a show of bad celebrity behaviour - and how because they are famous, they hold civic responsibility as role models to well, not be so wild - and i guess there is a point to that. But another side to it is that celebrities do not hold a responsibility to be perfect role models - after all, they're human people. The verdict is out on this, but I think we can safely say that fame comes with certain expectations attached. There's a reason why Japanese talent agencies are so Nazi-like in their enforcement of imeeji, or image, to the point where many idols are forced to hide their relationships and even habits like smoking in order not to destroy a carefully constructed image in the media. An excellent example of the enforcement of imeeji is the suspension and eventual demotion of a couple of NEWS members some time ago for underage drinking. They were never allowed to return to their group, effectively destroying their career in an impulsive moment (or a careless slip where they were captured by the media, but anyway).
But returning to the point about the earthquake in Japan today, I am equally impressed by voluntary demonstrations of civic responsibility on the part of celebrities - in particular the fact that some celebrities recognise that their fame has immense influence and they can reach out to hundreds of thousands, even millions of people with what they do, and knowing that, they do the right thing. Not because people expect them to, like their agency expects them to not get married till they're 40, but because they want to. Which goes back to today's earthquake, as I found out through Twitter. I first heard of the earthquake through a tweet by Utada Hikaru, which simply stated that there was a huge earthquake and the damage was pretty bad. Following that, what impressed me immensely was the amazing retweeting speed and ability of Shirota Yuu, a Japanese actor, who retweeted (and is still retweeting as of now) tens of tweets from other Japanese users. And not just useless, mundane tweets, but tweets to help people, such as locations of safehouses, AED devices, warnings to avoid tapwater and pleas of help, like one i'll translate here: "I can't get out of my house without a helicopter. Please help. There are also people trapped next door. Help us, please." Maybe somewhere, amongst his fans, there'll be someone who knows of a helicopter (or maybe he's flying a helicopter!) and can help that person out there. Utada Hikaru continued to tweet again later in English, to inform foreigners along the Japanese coastline of tsunami warnings, in case they didn't understand the Japanese. These two have completely bowled me over with their willingness to help, knowing that their thousands of followers on Twitter will have a far greater, widespread reach than that of fifty followers on a normal person's twitter. Because of that, they retweet other people's requests for help and information, knowing that their information will find more people, and that will help more people.
This reminds me of another Japanese celebrity, Sakurai Sho of Arashi, who took up a newscaster job in 2006 and holds a special corner to explain news issues in layman's terms, because he wanted to make use of his Economics degree. Beyond that, he's also mentioned that the reason why he decided to become a newscaster was because he knew of his influence amongst the younger generation (at that time Arashi's popularity was booming amongst tweens, teens and the twentysomethings), and he wanted to use it to allow them to gain an interest in current affairs.
And then I wonder about the more well-touted examples of celebrity 'good behaviour', such as Angelina Jolie or Madonna adopting lots of kids and Oprah Winfrey raising tons of money to set up a girls' school in Africa. And well, maybe Hollywood does blow it up a lot or something, but many of these efforts, while laudable, don't seem to have as widespread a reach as what I'm seeing here with Shirota Yuu and Utada Hikaru. Maybe it's also because of the power of social media, but these people are using their fame to reach out to people. Maybe Angelina Jolie can inspire people to understand the plight of orphaned children, but then what is the next step from there? Are people sufficiently moved to donate to help these kids, or adopt them? Is there something they are trying to tell the masses, their fans, with their actions? We can admire them, but can we take the next step from there? Is there a more effective way to use one's fame to achieve a change in the world? Are celebrities expected to use their fame to change the world?
Whatever the answers to those questions are, my response is that while celebrities are not necessarily expected to wield civic responsibility, those who understand the implications of their fame and the power it has to reach out to other people, and then wield it effectively, are celebrities that I admire. Like the example of Shirota Yuu and Utada Hikaru, and maybe even Sakurai Sho. Now these efforts will probably never make it into the entertainment news. Few people are going to read the headline 'SHIROTA YUU RETWEETS'. But yet these celebrities are doing this because they know they can help people with what they do. In the West, big-time sensational efforts like epic fundraisers will hit the news, but these little efforts won't. These celebrities aren't doing it for the fame. They're doing it, because they recognise the power of their fame, and they're using it effectively.
That, in my opinion, is celebrities showing civic and social responsibility.