Actors and Celebrities (Kimberly McKeand)
Fact Checked Source: "Baseball is Back: Some Good News with John Krasinski Ep. 3"
Famous actor John Krasinski reached out to social media and asked millions of people to send him good news happening in their lives, and the people answered. Krasinski then took it upon himself to create his own youtube channel, sharing some good news in attempts to help lighten the mood and bring a smile to his viewer's faces. On April 12, 2020, he came out with his third episode, focusing on baseball and giving back to people putting in hard work to keep all of us safe and healthy.Looking Deeper: Five Facts Checked
We all know that good news can make people happy by itself, but could John Krasinski's own presentation of the material make it even more powerful and capable to make his audience happy? Research says that yes, it does.Krasinski presents different tidbits of different kinds of good news in his videos, including
- Videos and pictures of kids
- Funny videos from normal parts of people's everyday lives
- Showing the positive things happening at hospitals and people being discharged
- Ways in which people can remain healthy, safe, and still have fun
- and numerous ways of thanking the people working hard and giving back to them in extraordinary ways
Krasinski himself actually contributes more to his audience's happiness than he might think though. An experiment by Ramendra Singh and Neelotpaul Banerjee was conducted to test well known celebrities and actor's effects on consumer choice after advertisements. This study looked into whether having a well-known and well-liked person being associated with a brand could positively affect a consumer's choice of products, and they found that yes, they have a "significant influence on consumers’ attitude[s]"(Singh and Banerjee, 2018). This means that the mere relation of John Krasinski presenting what he thought was good news can make the audience believe it themselves if they didn't already before, or at least watch the good news with a more open mindset (as they're trusting him and what he's associated with).
This can even be furthered by another study, done by Steven Hoffman and Charlie Tan, to test how celebrities' comments about what they thought was a healthy lifestyle or comments about what they did to remain healthy affected their audience. Researchers wanted to know if comments like these could influence their follower's health, and the extent to which these normal people would trust celebrities who were realistically unqualified to give health advice. Their research found that celebrities "strongly influence people’s health-related behaviors"(Hoffman and Tan, 2015). This can be seen in the way that Krasinski delivers his "Some Good News" segments. He includes a variety of news topics, in attempts to include everyone and what they might like to see, but adding onto this, the fact that Krasinski is happy about delivering the news himself helps the audience enjoy the news even more.
All together, John Krasinski is very successful with his youtube series and is firmly capable of lightening the mood and bringing a smile tot he faces of the people willing to take the time to watch it.
Analytic Essay
Actor John Krasinski is Back in Action, Bringing Positivity and Laughter Back into the Lives of his Viewers
These troubling, sad times we live through affect all of us, and we all have our different ways of handling our lives and making daily decisions that influence ourselves and others. Healthcare workers around the world work day and night restlessly trying to fight natural sickness. Politicians work to find ways to protect and provide the best for their citizens. Laboratories work to diagnose and provide for people all over. Now the world seems to be pandemonium; some people are working harder than they ever have and ever deserve to be, while other people are out of work completely. It’s a shocking time for everyone who has been touched by COVID-19 and its strain on us. In these low months, actors and media influencers have been trying to spread good news and positivity, incorporating COVID-19 safety instructions into their lives in positive ways, reaching out and thanking medical workers, spreading good news of people recovering from the virus, and including the media on little happy moments of life, all in attempts to help people try to remain positive and to raise the hopes and unity of America as a nation.
John Krasinksi is a prime example of someone with media power who has used their influence in efforts to benefit society. He has created his own youtube channel “Some Good News with John Krasinski” where he asks people on social media to share their happy moments in life with him so that he can share them to the internet. He continues to make episodes and includes a variety of good news topics. He includes news in relation to the health field, highlighting how a hospital celebrates and claps when a person who was fighting COVID-19 recovers and can finally return home and how another hospital is hosting a competition to inspire people to recover and compete in a “one-liner” competition to make the best comment about how they beat COVID-19, helping to raise the hopes of people affected by the virus and their families, trying to add positivity and motivation into fighters’ lives. Krasinski also shares news about kids and the ways they’ve incorporated social distancing and clean habits into their lives, from walking down the street and pretending to greet passersby, to making a collaborative video from a girl’s softball team where each teammate would catch a ball and throw it to another teammate in individual videos so their whole team can be included. These kinds of ideas can help to encourage positivity for kids so that they can still try to incorporate what they like to do into their current lives and provide warm-hearted material for adults who maybe can’t see the younger members of their family at the moment. News such as fun ways to remain physically active and outside, how local religious gatherings are attempting to boost morale, and how companies and even celebrities are donating and thanking medical health professionals is included too. All of Krasinski’s news intends to provide a variety of light-hearted services for its audience, wanting to make viewers laugh, take note of good ideas, or even smile at a grandfather seeing his grandson for the first time through a window to keep them both safe.
Part of what makes Krasinski’s perspective and influence even more pleasurable to watch is because he is a well-known and well-liked media icon. When a person gains a large amount of experience on screen and with his or her audience and knows how to please the public, generally, he or she gains more of an influence over an audience member’s preferences. Good news is good news already, and although John Krasinski does a fine job of including a variety of heart-warming good news, the fact that he is already such a popular person and celebrity helps to elevate the positive mood. A psychology study tested consumer’s attitude towards a product or brand name when the product or brand was advertised with a well-known and well-liked celebrity, and found that “celebrity credibility has a significant influence” and that “attitude built on celebrity credibility has positive significant influence” (Singh, et al., 2018). This then adds to Krasinski’s power and message that he is trying to send to all his viewers.
John Krasinski and his power to do good have been reaching out to social media and the internet to try to spread good news and lighten the hopes and attitudes of everyone enduring troublesome times. Other celebrities and media stars have also joined him and have tried to contribute to the benefit of society as well, from The Rock singing one of his songs he sings in the movie Moana while washing his daughters hands thoroughly, to Gal Gadot and a group of celebrities all coming together to sing John Lennon’s “Imagine” in a composite video. Although we all are going through hard times, influencers are putting in good and simple effort to attempt to brighten their viewers’ spirits, which is something that can help all of us, even if it’s just by a little bit.
References
Baseball is Back: Some Good News with John Krasinski Ep. 3. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg08rJGKjtA
This is the source for the original "Baseball is Back: Some Good News with John Krasisnki Ep. 3" video listed above.
Singh, R. P., & Banerjee, N. (2018). Exploring the Influence of Celebrity Credibility on Brand Attitude, Advertisement Attitude and Purchase Intention. Global Business Review, 19(6), 1622–1639. doi: 10.1177/0972150918794974
This source is the published article of the research done on consumer attitude in relation to celebrity association with brand names. It supports John Krasinski's effect of happiness and positivity in his audience.
Hoffman, S. J., & Tan, C. (2015). Biological, psychological and social processes that explain celebrities’ influence on patients’ health-related behaviors. Archives of Public Health, 73(1). doi: 10.1186/2049-3258-73-3
This source is the published article of the research done regarding celebrities' comments about health and the degree to which their followers trust and use their comments. It amplifies John Krasinski's positive attitude and humorous elements, adding to the entirety of the video and its effect onto its viewers.
