Is it us or the media?
It never fails to amaze me how real news is substituted by the media for ‘what is in the public interest to know’. It is too easy for newspapers to create a scandal. Throw in a famous face, add speculation as to their extracurricular activities and the quotes from a ‘close source’ and you have a front page story worthy of any tabloid, whether it is true or not.
The public needed to know, apparently, that Victoria Beckham has worn the same dress twice in as many months or that Paris Hilton was allegedly allowed more privileges (such as a mobile phone) then any other prisoner during her incarceration. As we have learned from the Joe Duffy Show, a prisoner with a mobile phone is not a rare occurrence!
In America, a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for People & the Press found that 87% of respondents feel that celebrities are given too much coverage in newspapers and on television news programmes.
Speaking of the motto of the New York Times, “All the news that’s fit to print:” It is hard to think of any group
of seven words that have aroused more newspaper controversy.
Gerald White Johnson
We feed on gossip; whether it’s music, movies, television or sports we feel like we have to have to be kept abreast of the daily comings and goings. Take a look at the sports section of a newspaper and you will find speculation in football as to which player is going where.
Go into any newsagents and you’ll find rows of the same style celebrity magazine full of ‘exclusive’ interviews with people who have spent less than 5 minutes in the limelight. We like the speculation about famous people because it keeps us slightly closer to them.
Celebrities are not allowed to have an argument over a meal without it leading to speculation that there marriage is over. They use the media as much as the public does and whether the tale is good or bad it’s still a win-win situation for the 4th estate. My question has always been simple; why?
Why are we prepared to do more to find out what our favourite ‘star’ does every day and not bother to find out what is going on in our own community?
For most folks, no news is good news; for the press, good news is not news.
Gloria Borger
We like rubbernecking. Every time an accident takes place on a motorway it slows down traffic as the cars drive by slowly to see what’s happened.
If we walked by the people in the accident in any other circumstance we wouldn’t bother to either look at, or say a word to them. But because they are on the same road as us, and have held us up from wherever we are going, their lives are now fit for public consumption.
Bad news makes us feel slightly happier about our lives because it takes us away from the mundane. No one wants to hear that a plane has landed in an airport safely because it happens 99.99999% of the time. We want something to jolt us out of the routine and make us think that there is something more to be had in life.
So at the end of the day, whose fault is it? Are the media wrong for putting the information out there to be viewed in public or is it we who are at fault for being voyeurs, hungry for any bit of gossip we can get?
Monday, August 6th, 2007 and is filed under Thoughts & Questions.
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