Perez's Persuasive Perceptions

Proudly admitted, I am a celebrity gossip and entertainment industry junkie. As such, it is only natural that I am also a frequent visitor to the Perez Hilton gossip blog, where I get my daily fix of dirt on all the stars’ relationships, new projects and most entertainingly their disastrous melt downs captured by the paparazzi.

While discussing and reading about the way we as people and communicators perceive others, I reflected on how Perez Hilton’s blog has influenced my perceptions of certain celebrities. I discovered that the ways I observe and judge them are all considered “common perceptual tendencies” according to what I have learned about perception and communication this past week.

When perceiving others, it is common to judge ourselves more favourably than we do others. While scrolling through the blog entries of PerezHilton.com I found that this was a common aspect of the website. In a blog entitled “Aren’t You a Billionaire, Olsen?” Perez posted a picture Mary Kate Olsen looking “dishevelled” by the standards of “Hollywood” society. As a viewer of the website and a follower of celebrities, I would agree with the notion that Mary-Kate Olsen isn’t as (in the words of Tyra Banks) “fierce” as a celebrity of her financial and social status would be expected to be.

Picture source: http://www.perezhilton.com/

However, I then considered this blog entry from the perspective of a communications student and how I have drawn the conclusion that Mary-Kate Olsen is a dishevelled mess on the basis of one photograph. This follows the perceptual tendency of judging others more harshly than myself, because I didn’t consider the possibility of perhaps she was just having a comfortable kind of day, or that she was out the night before and wasn’t really in the mood to get dressed up early the next morning. I also didn’t consider the fact that she is not only a celebrity, but currently a university student. When I have an early morning class, I don’t feel the need to put on makeup or fix my hair because I know that once the class is over, I’m most likely going back to bed. I use this justification for myself when I look a little less than glamorous, but didn’t even consider this reasoning when looking at the picture of Mary Kate Olsen.

Perez Hilton has a powerful grasp over the opinions of a lot of people when it comes to celebrities. With an awkward photograph and the addition of some drawings in “Paint”, our views of other people can be completely altered. This can be attributed to the perceptual tendency that people are influenced by what is in their face. Without considering the possible explanations, situations or contexts, we simply draw conclusions based on a picture, a video or a quote. The blog has made use of the way people favour negative impressions and draws people in with the details of celebrities’ most embarrassing moments.

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