The Effects of Drug use by Celebrities upon Young People’s Drug Use and Perceptions of Use.

Karl Witty (NCCDP Researcher)

As recently as a century ago, the range of people who had the power to influence adolescent socialisation was limited to the relatives, peers, neighbours and teachers, with parents occupying the primary position of authority (Giles and Maltby, 2004). Young people in the UK today watch on average 2.8 hours of television per day, 82% of young people use the internet daily and 77% of 16-24 year olds read a newspaper during the week (Drugscope, 2005). The growth of the mass media and its use by young people has thus opened the floodgates to this previously highly exclusive collection of figures of influence. Boon and Lomore’s 2001 study into admirer-celebrity relationships among young people reported that 75% of young adults had at some time in their lives had a strong attraction to a celebrity, and 59% of the young people under study stated that their idols had influenced some aspect of their attitudes and beliefs. Despite research on the role of the media and media figures in the lives of young people there is a shortfall of work specifically targeting the influence of risky celebrity behaviour on the actions and perceptions of young people.

In recent months the issue of celebrity drug use has come to the forefront of public thinking due to some high profile stories. Model Kate Moss’s alleged cocaine use (‘Cocaine Kate’, The Mirror 15-09,-2005; ‘How Kate ‘Snorted Five Lines of Cocaine in Just 40 Minutes’, The Evening Standard 15-09-2005), Pete Doherty’s crack cocaine and heroin dependence (‘DOWNFALL OF A CHOIRBOY; A Brilliant Student and Talented Singer, Pete Doherty Risks Losing It All to Heroin. Will His Passion for 'Fiancee' Kate Moss Save Him?’, The Daily Mail 04-02-2005; 'I Don't Want to Turn into Peter Libertine Rehab King'; His Drug Addiction Forced Him out of His Old Band. Will Pete Doherty Be Able to Clean Up His Act for His New Project?’ The Evening Standard 30-07-2005) and also the debate over Conservative party leader David Cameron’s cocaine experiences (‘Tory Wives Ready to Ask Cameron If He Took Drugs’, The Daily Mail 11-10-2005). These examples illustrate that the issue has come to span the whole social and cultural spectrum, with relevance to the social elite as well as celebrity worshipping youth. Thus for a brief time at least the topic of celebrity drug use and drug use in general has been brought to the forefront of public consciousness, which may have implications for drug policy and research; especially when taking into account the strong young peoples theme in the UK drug strategy.

Admirer-Celebrity Relationships

The relationship that develops between media celebrities and some of their fans can be labelled as parasocial, defined as “the seeming face-to-face relationship that develops between a viewer and a mediated personality” (Cole & Leets, 1999:496). While the relationship is broadly speaking one-sided, the fan may feel that there is a level of intimacy between them and the celebrity, that the celebrity is more of a friend than an object of admiration or desire. Increased media consumption has been allied in the contemporary media with a campaign for gaining celebrity authenticity and searching for the ‘real’ celebrity. These developments have helped compound young peoples attachment to media figures, ensuring that some celebrities are held with the utmost esteem of a media icon. Unlike past celebrities however contemporary media production guarantees that celebrities can be observed at length, in a ‘no holds barred’ manner, creating an ‘illusion of intimacy’ (Gamson, 2001). This may have the effect of compounding tendencies towards more extreme forms of celebrity relations.

Whilst celebrity worship can, on occasions, develop onto a borderline-pathological level, indicating a weak identity structure and limited interpersonal skills (Maltby et al., 2004) in general, celebrities can play a vital role in the socialisation process. “Media figures play an important part in [adolescent identity] development, since they offer a variety of possible selves that a young person might wish to try out and provide exemplars “of how to think and feel in different circumstances”” (Giles & Maltby, 2004:814). Certain young people may therefore use celebrity drug use as a means to inform their own actions, depending on whether their idols report positively or negatively on the experience. Thus when young people have a weak attachment to peers or parents, the celebrity may be adopted in an almost surrogate role. Personal experiences of stress and anxiety in other aspects of life may also strengthen the attachment felt towards celebrities (ibid). In this context one may see relevance to those ‘at risk’ young people, likely to be experiencing high stress levels through, for example, a chaotic home life.

Celebrity Drug Use

Whilst the celebrity has come to occupy a key role in the lives of many young people, its influence must not be overstated. Young people do not form their opinions on drugs and drug use solely from media personalities. Young people are informed about drugs and drug use through a wide variety of sources such as music (Herd, 2005), drugs education in schools (e.g. White & Pitts, 1998), local and national drug prevention campaigns (e.g. FRANK), peer interaction (Bandura, 1986), and their own personal experiences, much of which is both conflicting and confusing. It is argued by Bandura (1986) that adolescents acquire many of their beliefs about drug use from role models. Exposure will shape two substance-specific beliefs. Firstly, that observing role models use of drugs directly affects outcome expectations about the consequences of drug use. Secondly, role models shape use and refusal self-efficacy. There are however inconsistencies in the messages young people receive about celebrity drug use, which may serve to promote and protect against the shaping of drug related beliefs.

The predominant message reported in relation to celebrity drug use is a negative one, (Model, Not Role Model, Western Mail, 23-09-2005) documenting the ‘evils of drug use’.  This message is however weakened when viewed in the context of the overall reporting of celebrity drug use. Drugscope’s Media Messages (2005) report highlighted the disparity in the media presentation of celebrity drug use and drug use outside of the realm of celebrity. Whilst drug use in mainstream society is condemned as criminal behaviour, celebrity drug use appears to be more readily accepted as an entertaining facet of the phenomena of celebrity. “Every now and then a rogue’s life will spin so out of control that he’ll actually become newsworthy. When this happens it is easy to jump in and judge the poor chap, but while reflecting on these tales, lets not forget the colour and inspiration they bring to our lives.”  (Loaded in Drugscope, 2005). While it is easy to dismiss such behaviour as provisions for our voyeuristic pleasure, a distraction from the dissatisfactions and pressures of contemporary life, it is unclear as to what effect the reporting of the subject in this manner has on young people’s drug related perceptions. 

There is a relative lack of academic literature concerned with the topic of celebrity influence as the majority of research within the field looks at representations of drugs and drug use in the media as opposed to drug use by celebrities per se. What’s more the bulk of research, which informs this literature, has been conducted in the US, therefore bringing into question the extent to which such research populations can be seen as representative of young people in the UK, or elsewhere, with it’s own unique form of youth culture.

An analysis of depictions of sex and drugs in the 200 highest grossing films highlighted that whilst drug taking in film may not be as prevalent as other risky behaviours such as unprotected sex, portrayals were overwhelmingly positive (Gunsekera et al., 2005). Drug use in this context has been argued to illustrate a form of observational learning akin to advertisement through product placement (ibid). It may be that the more young people see positive depictions of drugs and drug use, the more likely they are to internalise these values. Drug outcome expectancies refer to the effects that an individual anticipates that they would experience after ingesting a drug. There is a close relationship between the perception of favourable outcomes and subsequent substance use behaviour (Brown et al., 1980; Davidson et al., 1993). Beliefs about drug effects may influence use behaviours independent of psychopharmacological factors. For example, youths and adults with strong expectations for positive and arousing effects from alcohol, which may be reinforced by media depictions, have earlier onset and maintenance of drinking behaviour, and are at higher risk for developing drinking problems and having negative drinking experiences (Blume et al., 2003; Goldman and Christiansen 1985). Initial experiences of cocaine largely determine whether use progresses beyond experimentation (Davidson et al., 1993).  A similar stance is provided by Roberts and colleagues (2002) looking at drug use within popular music videos. Whilst again stating that depictions of illicit drugs or drug use are relatively rare in popular music videos, these authors argue that when they do appear they are depicted on a purely neutral level, as common elements of everyday activity. Thus, it is argued that this form of characterisation may function to normalise substance abuse amongst young viewers.

The comparison with celebrity endorsement provides a powerful resource in the analysis of depictions of celebrity drug use. Ross and colleagues (1984) examined children’s perceptions of products resulting from the viewing of adverts containing a celebrity endorser.  Their research indicated that celebrity endorsement and the inclusion of ‘real life’ footage in advertisements significantly influenced children’s perceptive and cognitive responses. If celebrity footage was present children were less likely to view the advert as staged. Perhaps more importantly, they were also likely to perceive the advertised product in an exaggerated way. In the context of this paper one may argue that whilst legal and social control of drugs will to some extent limit opportunity for use, irrespective of whether celebrity drug use is reported positively or negatively, the very fact that so many celebrities appear to be using drugs bestows a certain level of glamour upon them (Drugscope, 2005).

Research in this area commonly neglects to take into account the subjective role of interpretation. As determined within cultural studies, different audiences interpret scenes in different ways rather than as a homogeneous grouping (Tincknell & Raghuram, 2002). As a component of the contemporary media, it may be argued that different people interpret celebrities actions in an equally irregular fashion. Audiences draw on their own knowledge, to piece together a narrative and make meaning from any given representation of the subject matter. The media aware youth of today should not be considered culturally malleable and unable to selectively interpret text. It is important to acknowledge youth as active in their media consumption (Maltby et al., 2005). Furthermore, most existing research into this topic rarely takes into account the contextual nature of drug depictions. In Gunsekera’s study, for example, there was no distinction between fleeting references and scenes which were intrinsically linked to the storyline, therefore creating a misleading view of the impact of media drug portrayals. The fundamental problem with the use of existing media research in the context of celebrity influence is however the notion of causality. Research hints at causal links but fails to provide substantial evidence to endorse such insinuations, thus only providing largely hypothetical evidence.

Conclusion

Celebrities have acquired an extremely high status within contemporary society, particularly in the eyes of young people. The developments in media coverage and media production, in conjunction with the changing facets of celebrity culture have helped re-position the celebrity as a more visible entity within contemporary society. The increasingly intrusive and voyeuristic media has inevitably led to a proliferation of images portraying celebrity drug use accessible by young people. It must not be assumed however that the increased visibility of celebrity drug use goes hand in hand with influencing young peoples activities and opinion formation; such statements must be supported by good quality research, applicable to UK audiences.  Reception of media images is increasingly documented within theory as an active process in which meaning is constructed in the context of peoples’ own knowledge and experiences. There is a need, within both policy and research to objectively expand our understanding of this process in the context of celebrity behaviour, and the effect this has on the lives of young people. Little is known as to the relative effects of young peoples’ reception of positive and negative depictions of drug use within the media. UK based research is required to ascertain whether media depictions of drug use, help affirm or abate effective drug prevention strategies, taking on board the contemporary developments in media and viewing outlined within this paper.

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