Pop culture strongly drives the teenage and adult population and has the ability to influence every aspect of our lifestyles. Many celebrities come and go depending when it’s their time to shine, but the problem they face everyday are the lovers and the haters constantly on their case. I dare you to find one celebrity that every person in the world likes and agrees that they are a positive attribute to society. Many young girls would agree that Miley Cyrus is their favorite singer and they love having her to look up to, but their parents may disagree saying that she’s trying to grow away from her Disney Channel character in all the wrong ways. There are a lot of people who think Brad Pitt is a wonderful actor and a great family figure, but others view him as a horrible man living in sin for having a huge family without getting married. Even Betty White has some lovers and haters on her case, but it’s not Miley, Brad or Betty that I’m talking about. Right now all eyes are on Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi as she grows more and more popular thanks to her reality show, Jersey Shore, which debuted on MTV this past fall. This show was a huge hit across the college student population. Many see Snooki as nothing more than a party addicted fame seeker who is taking advantage of all the perks that come with being a celebrity. However, others just find her, and her Jersey Shore cast mates, entertaining and they don’t take her too seriously.
This issue has recently divided our JMU community in regards to Snooki coming to campus. Some students and faculty think that her coming has no educational value, wastes students money, and only fuels her unwanted fame. One student, Joshua Kalaher, said "Snooki is a cast member of the Jersey Shore - a show that depicts a deplorable image for impressionable youth, and essentially provides no redeeming qualities whatsoever." (Uproar Over Snooki's College Visit Reignites, par. 4). In contrast, many supporters wanted her to come and applaud the University Program Board (UPB) for bringing her to campus to allow students to see their favorite reality show star in person, something others could only wish for. In a recent article published in the JMU newspaper, The Breeze, one JMU sophomore Stacey Sulko said “Snooki is a stamp on our culture, it’s entertaining to watch” (Foster, par. 9). Students are not afraid to speak their mind regarding this issue but it leaves the question, why is this an issue on campus and why is it that college students love reality show stars?
A study conducted in 2009 by Kristin M. Barton, a communications teacher at Dalton State College, showed that reality shows are watched all across the nation and by every age group. However, the main concentration of reality show viewers range for 18-24 years of age whom are primarily college students. When 689 students from southwestern universities were polled it was proven that the reason college students love these shows so much are because they can picture themselves as a contestant. So, they are more driven to watch, in essence, their peers perform challenges, or live out a “glamorous” lifestyle. Another study, also conducted in 2009, by Alice Hall the director of communications at the University of Missouri attributes student’s fascination with reality TV to their desire to have that celebrity status. It was concluded that students watch these shows because they see people just like them hitting it big in the reality show business and they wish that could be them. They even go as far as comparing themselves to these celebrities and acting out their personal lives as if they were one of these celebrities.
Even though there are many people on campus that desire to be like these reality show stars, there are still those that believe it’s shows like the Jersey Shore that are ruining public television. Even with all the differences in individual liking styles I think that people on either side of this argument can agree that Snooki doesn’t carry any intellectual value. She’s good at partying and could maybe teach you some cheerleading moves from when she was a cheerleader in high school, but she doesn’t carry any academic worth. We all can also distinguish the main reason UPB brought her to campus which was purely for entertainment purposes. A press release given by UPB said “this is a purely entertaining event which reminds us all not to take our time here [at JMU] too seriously and have some fun” (Sutter, par. 4). She was a good choice for “safe” entertainment and drew a huge excited crowd for the event. She’s almost like a guilty pleasure, you want to hear about and watch the crazy things she does but you don’t want anyone to know you’re watching. I mean who doesn’t love a good laugh?
A misconception that students have been talking about is employers are not going to take JMU graduates seriously because we brought Snooki to campus, but I believe this won’t have an impact on their hiring strategies in regard to JMU grads. In the past employers have used Facebook and Myspace to check up on prospective recruits but the talk of a supposed bias towards JMU students because of Snooki is outrageous. Recently I have gone to talk to some employers of local businesses, such as spas and fine dining restaurants in my hometown who often hire college students. I wanted to see if they would discriminate against JMU students because we brought Snooki on our campus and many of them thought I was joking. Many of their responses were along the lines of “there is a proper time in life for everything and if college students don’t go to these types of events and enjoy themselves when it’s appropriate to, then they run into a huge crisis later in their life”. This really helped me see that bringing to Snooki to campus was absolutely the right decision. College students are given these opportunities because you are only young once and you’re expected to go out, be safe, but also enjoy themselves.
Another popular fallacy is that tuition money was used to bring Snooki to campus, when in fact this isn’t completely true. The University Program Board is funded half by the SGA and half by student fees. UPB doesn’t release the amount they paid for specific entertainment acts brought to campus for security and liability reasons, but the revenue made through ticket sales went well over $5,000 and was able to pay off most, if not all, of Snooki’s asking price. Now the money still owed came from either the SGA or student fees meaning that if any, a very small amount of money from student fees would go to Snooki.
I asked students who didn’t approve of Snooki coming what they propose UPB should do, and they responded “have different celebrities come to campus”. This is a completely reasonable response to the question and it shows that students do value entertainment on campus, just maybe not Snooki. There are many celebrities students wish UPB would bring but are too expensive such as Dane Cook, The Black Eyed Peas, Metro Station, etc. but with Snooki they were actually able to afford her. They were able to book an up-and-coming celebrity before her rates were totally out of UPB’s price range.
Another proposal from the student body was to still have Snooki on campus but to have her privately funded. Anti-Snooki students said that if there were people on campus that wanted her to come so badly then those students should have funded her to come, instead of a “student funded” organization. The only problem with this is that many celebrities’ agents won’t even talk to you until you have an event coordinator or professional in charge. Therefore, it would have been nearly impossible and much more expensive for individual students to fund Snooki to come and then no one would have been able to enjoy the event that was made possible because of UPB.
When UPB announced that Snooki would be coming to the university they created a Facebook page to invite all students who were fans to attend. This page soon turned sour after students flooded the wall with racist remarks and negative comments forcing the Program Board to disable the wall. Students comments were still welcomed, they just had to be sent to a private UPB e-mail so they didn’t offend anyone or ignite anymore harmful remarks. Some students created a Facebook page called “Stay off My Campus Snooki” and even got over 700 followers. Now this anti Snooki movement may seem easily refuted but I think it’s important to point out the perks of having a large campus like we do. JMU has the ability to be a very diverse but successful school because we are large enough to express and support our individual point of views, but small enough to hear everyone else’s concerns.
Multiple JMU students have spoken out in many forms saying that they don’t approve of Snooki coming to our campus and yet the university still had enough students to fill a 1,045 seat auditorium. They were even able to gain 3000+ followers on Facebook saying they would attend the event had the venue allowed it. In an article published by WHSV, a local Harrisonburg news station, one resident said “Obviously if the students didn’t want to see this [event] the show wouldn’t have sold out in 3 days!” (Sager, par. 9). It’s amazing and unique that a college is able to have this outpour of strong emotions yet still be able to come together and hold an awesome event without hurting the opposing sides’ views.
With every conflict across campus there are always choices, but the question for this event was how to please everyone. Now obviously it’s impractical to please everyone in this situation, but when my GWRTC class was asked to use compromise to make everyone happy they did have some very useful suggestions. They suggested that maybe the event could have still happened, but simply be moved off campus so that students could still go, but it wouldn’t be directly associated with JMU. I thought this was a great idea and it would have solved a lot of problems that students had with the event. Many were worried about the university’s image and reputation, but if it were off campus they wouldn’t have to worry about this.
Even though a lot of students are able to agree on some aspects of this event there are still many problems with their arguments as I see it. In regards to this particular Snooki event I am a lover. I do not condone her behavior when she is on the Jersey Shore but I do understand that the show was put on the MTV network for entertainment purposes and it’s been very successful with this endeavor. Bringing Snooki to campus was purely for entertainment purposes. UPB has submitted multiple press releases saying that this is not meant to offend or anger anyone but was geared towards the humorous entertainment genre. UPB’s mission statement is to “strive to enhance the overall JMU experience by providing a variety of creative, educational and entertaining programs that appeal to diverse audiences” (UPB Mission Statement, par. 1). This really shows that UPB makes every effort to bring a mixture of events to campus and Snooki just happened to fall into the entertainment category.
Foster, Torie. Snooki Brings Fist Pumps, Poofs to JMU. The Breeze. 4 Mar. 2010. James Madison University. Web. 10 Mar. 2010.
Sager, Sarah. Snooki Visits JMU. WHSV3. 3 Mar. 2010. WHSV. Web. 9 Mar. 2010.
Sutter, John. UPB Has One Hand In the Snooki Jar. The Breeze. 18 Feb. 2010. James Madison University. Web. 10 Mar. 2010.
UPB Mission Statement. University Program Board. 15 Sept. 2009. UPB. Web. 9 Mar. 2010.
Uproar Over Snooki's College Visit Reignites. RadarOnline. 26 Feb. 2010. RadarOnline. Web. 9 Mar. 2010.
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Kara, you seem to have found awesome evidence from Barton and Hall; these sources are much more relevant to your argument than your previous scholarly sources. However, even though you incorporate them well, you don't cite them--either parenthetically or in your Works Cited! This is important. Other than this oversight, this is a sound Rogerian argument. Good job.
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