Constructing celebrities as political endorsers: parasocial acts, cultural power, and cultural capital

This article explores three underlying codes that construct celebrities as political endorsers: parasocial acts, cultural power, and cultural capital. These mechanisms drive contingent endorsement abilities among popular media celebrities in the prominent context of political opinion leadership during national elections. The social, cultural, and political contexts situated in the Philippines provide rich avenues of understanding of how celebrities are constructed as a social influence emanating from everyday socialization among social groups. A series of focus groups in Quezon City involving voters stratified by socioeconomic class and gender and exemplifying everyday interactions among individuals served as linguistic resources for analysis. Findings suggest that celebrities are symbolically constructed as intimate and significant others (parasocial acts) created through everyday media consumption complemented by amplified social interactions. These parasocial acts with celebrities serve as foundations for their cultural power directly influencing individuals in their political decisions, such as during elections. Finally, such parasocial acts are a function of the social groups' pronounced cultural capital. Implications are offered in understanding the significant role celebrities play in Philippine elections as an indication of their sociopolitical significance to individuals' preferences and decision-making processes during elections.