{"id":373,"date":"2024-02-15T13:50:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T13:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/?p=373"},"modified":"2024-02-15T13:46:45","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T13:46:45","slug":"celebrity-or-mp-how-celebrities-are-influencing-british-policymaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/2024\/02\/15\/celebrity-or-mp-how-celebrities-are-influencing-british-policymaking\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrity Or MP? How Celebrities Are Influencing British Policymaking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In modern politics MPs aren’t the only people that citizens can use to influence and have their say on policy, since Jamie Oliver changed policy on the sugar tax in 2006<\/a>, and now again with the influence of footballer Marcus Rashford on free school meals<\/a>, celebrities are using their platforms to influence UK policy making. The disconnect from Westminster seems to be ever-growing and ever present with little change, this was highlighted by Rashford as he campaigned for free school meals in the summer of 2020 as many felt the government were completed unaware of the struggles many faced during the pandemic especially when trying to feed their children, this disconnect seems to only be remedied with celebrity influence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"Marcus<\/a>\n<\/div>
“Marcus Rashford mural, Withington, Manchester #BLM<\/a>” by dullhunk<\/a> is licensed under CC BY 2.0<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Media and Politics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Media and politics have been growing ever closer for many years, especially since the boom of social media, people now feel they are more tuned in to key debates and topics than ever before, so how does this have an influence on policymaking? As it has become more popular for media to have an impact the government turn to pop culture to see how they need to act, for example the Post office scandal<\/a> that had substantial change happen due to an ITV Dramatized version. Celebrities and now influencers have the ability to generate different types of connections with citizens than MPs can, the access to their public lives generates a Para-social relationship that are otherwise hard to do. (Mishra and Mishra, 2014 p410) Starting with Jamie Oliver most famously he showed how he could use a platform to change perspectives and bring up a key issue many people felt was important, the influence of Oliver’s success in redirecting parliamentary legislation led to others having similar success. With Rashford and FSM. We can see that many citizens felt he better represented them than the current government do. His influence on the FSM policy being extended came with huge backing on social media and from various groups like Fareshare <\/em>and The Food Group<\/em> accumulated into the government acting and showed the influence of celebrity on current policy making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Jamie Oliver in Union Square<\/a>” by really short<\/a> is licensed under CC BY 2.0<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pressure To Make Change? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The changing dynamic of what was a celebrity was to what they are now also changes the way in which parasocial relationships work.(Mishra and Mishra, 2014 p410) The pressure on influencers to be socially aware of all political issues is growing. While this is always a good thing it can mean citizens feel they must act politically too, mirroring their influencer idols. In some cases this might be positive as this leads these celebrities to become vessels for citizens to express their beliefs, also how celebrities now, more often than governments, represent the most popular views of the time. Another key current example is how Love Island contestant, and former civil servant, Zara McDermott took Refuge<\/em><\/a>‘s<\/em> Naked threat campaign to parliament in an attempt to make the threat of sharing of intimate sexual images or films a crime. Although not necessarily pressured, from her past experiences as a civil servant she understood how becoming a celebrity gives you the ability to share campaigns and issues people may not have previously wanted to listen to and as a victim of blackmail whilst on love island its an issue she certainly understands the repercussions of. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Celebrities and Influencers are having an impact on policymaking there doesn’t seem to be any way around that but how the government choose to interact with them in the future could be very beneficial to their key policy ideas. “Celebrity attention can affect which issues reach the public agenda” (Nownes, 2019 p118) and in some cases it already is. The government is beginning to establish these key relationships with public figures of professional backgrounds already such as Dr Alex, another love island contestant. He was appointed ‘Youth Mental Health Ambassador’<\/a> in an attempt to engage with a younger audience and what they see as a key issue right now. Policymaking is becoming more diverse in its creation and amendment and celebrity is most certainly a key aspect, how governments moving forward will choose to utilise it or ignore it will depend on its future success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reference list<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Archer, A. and Cawston, A. (2021). Celebrity Politics and Democratic Elitism. Topoi<\/em>, 41(1). doi:https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s11245-021-09763-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chowcat, A. (2020). Refuge and Love Island star Zara McDermott take \u2018The Naked Threat\u2019 campaign to the gates of Parliament<\/em>. [online] Refuge. Available at: https:\/\/refuge.org.uk\/news\/the-naked-threat-zara-mcdermott-parliament\/ [Accessed 13 Feb. 2024].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dullhunk (2020). \u2018Marcus Rashford mural, Withington, Manchester #BLM\u2019 <\/em>. CC BY 2.0<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gov.uk (2021). Prime Minister appoints Dr. Alex George as Youth Mental Health Ambassador<\/em>. [online] GOV.UK. Available at: https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/prime-minister-appoints-dr-alex-george-as-youth-mental-health-ambassador.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JamieOliver.com (2018). What is the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (sugar tax) Jamie Oliver | Features<\/em>. [online] Jamie Oliver. Available at: https:\/\/www.jamieoliver.com\/features\/soft-drinks-industry-levy\/.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mishra, A.A. and Mishra, A. (2014). National vs. Local Celebrity Endorsement and Politics. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society<\/em>, [online] 27(4), pp.409\u2013425. Available at: https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/24713304?searchText=&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dcelebrity%2Band%2Bpolicymaking&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&searchKey=&refreqid=fastly-default%3Ad0eb4962138cf83cafbebf8464850624&seq=1 [Accessed 13 Feb. 2024].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nownes, A.J. (2019). Can Celebrities Set the Agenda? Political Research Quarterly<\/em>, 74(1), p.106591291986953. doi:https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/1065912919869530.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peachey, kevin (2021). Post Office scandal: What the Horizon saga is all about. BBC News<\/em>. [online] 23 Apr. Available at: https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-56718036.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politics (2021). Marcus Rashford – Free School Meals Campaginer<\/em>. [online] Politics.co.uk. Available at: https:\/\/www.politics.co.uk\/reference\/marcus-rashford-profile\/.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Really Short (2006). Jamie Oliver In Union Square <\/em>. CC by 2.0<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In modern politics MPs aren’t the only people that citizens can use to influence and have their say on policy,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1532,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1532"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":395,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions\/395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/pb-happ\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}