Learning from Other Writers: Celebrity Relationships: Why Do We Care?
Instructor's Notes
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Celebrity Relationships: Why Do We Care?
Karen Sternheimer
Video
Karen Sternheimer is a professor of sociology at the University of Southern California. Her book, Celebrity Culture and the American Dream: Stardom and Social Mobility (2011), explores how celebrity culture reflects society as a whole. In this video, Sternheimer discusses how our obsession with celebrities’ relationships reveals our anxieties about marriage. Click the image below to watch the video, and then respond to the questions that follow.
View Transcript.
Karen Sternheimer
Source: https://www.ncsociology.org/sociationtoday/v101/dead.htm
Questions to Start You Thinking
Meaning
- What aspects of a celebrity’s life does Sternheimer say is “central in celebrity coverage”?
- To what does Sternheimer relate our changing views of marriage?
- According to Sternheimer, what anxieties does our obsession with celebrity marriage reflect?
Writing Strategies
- What types of support does Sternheimer use in this video? What other types of support might have been effective?