What really makes a celebrity a true celebrity? Is it the news
coverage? The pursuit of tabloids? Perhaps sheer popularity is what
drives us to call movie stars, musicians, and politicians celebrities.
If that is the case, are the non-traditional stars celebrities as well?
In
order to find a satisfactory answer to this dilemma, one must look for a
celebrity index. CelebrityContest.net has developed an algorithm to
assign a value to a celebrity, much as stocks are assigned a monetary
value in order for site visitors or members to build celebrity
portfolio. The algorithm takes into consideration the amount and timing
of news items pertaining to celebrities as well as the popularity of the
celebrity as a portion of online portfolios. But does this adequately
measure the amount of celebrity status an individual has achieved?
Celebrity
To
determine this, we need to consider what celebrity actually means. The
American Heritage Dictionary defines celebrity as "a famous person," or
"renown, fame." That definition is very broad indeed. To be renown is to
simply be well-known. Osama Bin Laden is well-known, but does not
necessarily have the same following as Jessica Alba. By this definition,
however, they are both celebrities.
Thus, to be a celebrity, one
must be either famous or infamous, and the distinction is not relevant.
By this same token, individuals who have developed a following in
unconventional ways such as the internet or reality programming are
certainly celebrities as well - albeit some have more global coverage
than others. So to measure the amount of celebrity an individual has
obtained, one would simply need to measure his or her popularity.
Measuring Popularity
Before
the information age, to measure popularity would involve countless
newspaper and magazine searches. Print resources as well as television
and radio contained any and all celebrity news and gossip. With the
advent of the internet, this changed, of course. In present times, the
internet has not only opened countless doors to those aspiring to
stardom, but has developed a multitude of news and gossip outlets as
well.
Most of the conventional media outlets - magazines,
newspapers, radio, and television have developed an online presence.
Often these websites contain more information pertaining to celebrities
than the original medium. Those interested in entertainment news now
have almost countless methods to find the information they seek.
The
fastest way to find information online, however, is through the search
engines. Major search engines index all web pages and online news items
as they are developed, and offer users a chance to hone in on the
desired material. Searching for celebrities will pull up thousands, if
not millions, of relevant results. It follows that by simply counting
the number of searches and articles for each celebrity, one could
understand the popularity of that individual.
Celebrity Contest
It
seems the algorithm developed by CelebrityContest.net holds true. The
algorithm assigns value to a celebrity based on the number and age of
news items and searches, which is the best indicator of popularity. Of
course, the algorithm also includes results from CelebrityContest.net,
which are a valid indicator as well.
If a celebrity is popular, he
or she will be included in many portfolios. If he is becoming blasé, he
will be dropped from portfolios in favor of more popular individuals.
If a celebrity is looking for a gauge of her own value, she can perform a
complicated web analysis, or simply track her price changes on
CelebrityContest.net to understand how her fan base is feeling. Of
course, fans can search for the value of their favorite celebrity, and
even cash in on the details only devoted fans are privy to - insider
trading if you will.
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