noble leaders and bold pioneers. So what has become of the hero today and how does it reflect our culture? I would argue that unfortunately, the word hero has become debased, largely as a result of today’s media. If one were to survey a group of children, the likelihood is that it is neither Gandhi, nor Mandela nor even Churchill who they would regard as their hero, but rather James Bond, Wayne Rooney or the latest X-factor winner. Today's heroes are often sports figures, celebrities, and rock stars whose lives are laced with controversy as well as frequent appearances in our over-crowded court rooms. So what has caused this colloquialisation of the term hero? Critics and social commentators alike have argued that the age of the hero is over, that it could not survive when public life came to be dominated by the media. The media was responsible for the demise of heroes; in order to become a hero today, what matters is not so much the greatness of one’s achievements, but the exposure one is given in the media. Having altered the hero we have replaced him with a distinctively modern public figure: the celebrity. Exposure in the media helps to increase a person’s status as a celebrity. Celebrities offer exclusive stories to increase their exposure, the media promote them to increase their ratings, and we collude by paying attention to the glossy features, the exclusive interviews, and the various scandals and intrigues. Therefore, in order to become a hero today, it is more important to have a good press agent than it is to possess ‘heroic qualities’. This is one of the reasons why figures from the world of entertainment and sport are some of the most successful celebrities. The key to becoming a household name is simply clinching the next big contract or the next lucrative advertising deal. With cleverly crafted media events in which managers collaborate with magazine editors and programme directors it is possible to give these figures a level of exposure which is out of all proportion to their actual achievements. The extent to which these modern ‘heroes’ have been built up creates the idea of them being ‘on a pedestal’ or untouchable and they’ve become role models for children. This can therefore have an extremely damaging effect if these heroes suddenly fall from grace. In fact in some ways, a recent comedy sketch from the comedian Simon Brodkin (Lee Nelson) insightfully demonstrated this point. In an interview posing as a made up premier league football player (Jason Bent), he stated that he had just signed a lucrative advertising contract with Nike and that he was delighted to be joining the ranks of such heroic sporting legends as Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong and Oscar Pistorius.
However, it would be unfair to say that the mass media is solely responsible for the death of the hero. A democratic culture also undermines the idea that certain individuals carry a divine spark and are therefore in a category superior to the rest of us. We are inclined to believe therefore that no one deserves to be worshipped as a true hero. Moreover, often as more details emerge about past heroes together with critical scrutiny by the psychologist and sociologist, society changes its opinions of
Mandela: still a hero.
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