How our perception of celebrities changed over time

CEBU, Philippines —  If you were a showbiz personality back then, appearing on a talk show was almost part of your itinerary. Celebrities would use these platforms to promote projects, share personal updates, or address controversies they were involved in. Many times, it was all of the above.

These talk shows – “The Buzz,” “S Files,” “Showbiz Central,” “Startalk,” etc – were among the few ways we could learn about celebrities and their lives, serving as the bridge between the public and the stars they admired or loathed.

But with the advent of social media, the barrier between celebrities and the average person slowly broke down. No longer are personalities dependent on traditional platforms to share their side of the story. They can directly communicate with their followers through a series of tweets, an Instagram photo dump, or a vlog that offers fans a closer look into their lives.

With this shift, celebrities gained more control over their own narratives. Instead of relying on entertainment programs to shape how the public sees them, they can now decide what parts of their lives they want to share and how they want to present themselves.

However, this accessibility has also changed the very idea of celebrity.

Entertainment media helped create the mystique behind famous personalities. Talk shows and entertainment reporters helped shape the conversations surrounding stars through the stories they chose to highlight and the questions they asked. The distance between the audience and the star was part of what made them fascinating. Today, that distance has become smaller.

The constant cycle of online updates has changed how audiences consume celebrity news. Blind items that once had people waiting for the latest episode of a gossip talk show can now spread online within minutes. With information no longer exclusive to these platforms, traditional celebrity news programs have struggled to maintain the same cultural influence they once had.

This shift is not exclusive to Philippine showbiz. Hollywood has also experienced the decline of traditional celebrity news formats. The long-running entertainment news program “Extra” is ending its run later this year, reflecting how these platforms no longer hold the same influence they once did.

The way celebrities become famous has also changed. Traditional media once played a major role in determining who had star power. Today, anyone can potentially become a public figure with just two buttons: record and post.

Social media’s culture of instant access also affects how audiences perceive stardom. Looking back, the way showbiz talk shows discussed celebrities – even with their controversies and gossip – unintentionally created a sense of mystery. Like folklore stories passed from one person to another, audiences learned about celebrities through hosts and reporters rather than directly from the stars themselves.

There is an interesting irony in this transformation: celebrities now have more control over their branding and the narratives surrounding them, but this increased accessibility may have reduced some of the distance that defined their fame.

Some Hollywood stars appear to understand the value of maintaining that distance as part of their celebrity, like Taylor Swift and Beyonce have become more selective with what they share on social media. Despite constant interest in their lives, they maintain a level of distance that preserves a sense of mystery surrounding them.

That does not mean celebrity news has become irrelevant. Instead, it has created an opportunity for entertainment journalism to evolve. One of the criticisms against traditional showbiz talk shows was that they often focused on superficial details of celebrities’ personal lives. Now that celebrities have the ability to share their own stories, entertainment journalists can move beyond simple gossip and ask deeper, more meaningful questions about their lives and how they see their careers.

While celebrities have greater control over their narratives, entertainment hosts and journalists still have a role to play by asking questions that the stars themselves may never think to share.

Boy Abunda may have adapted to this changing landscape through his former show “Tonight with Boy Abunda” and now “Fast Talk” on GMA. These programs moved away from the more speculative nature often associated with his former showbiz talk show “The Buzz,” and instead focused on allowing celebrities to share their stories, with Abunda serving as the moderator.

“We have changed. We have evolved into different people today. A lot of things have changed. The people behind ‘The Buzz’ have changed and even you the audience have changed,” he said during the final episode of “The Buzz” in 2015.

At that time, Abunda remained optimistic about the future of entertainment journalism despite the show’s cancellation, a sentiment that continues to ring true today. “Showbiz news is here to stay. The showbiz talk show genre is not going to die, it will continue and we will come back,” he added.