In the past year, the news outlets have filled their coverage with celebrity doings. This may not be a new development, but I feel that the last year has been particularly inundated. "Breaking news" about Lindsay Lohan, Amy Winehouse, and kingpin Britney Spears. These outlets have gravitated towards everything going on in their lives, with the emphasis being put on the bad.
Now, before I go any further, I want to make it clear that I am not, at all, condoning or supporting any actions that any celebrity has taken that has ended up in the newspapers. I may agree with some choices and I may disagree with others. That is not the point of this post. The point of this post is to comment on the tabloidization of the news media.
I guess the debate that rages in my head is the one between the news media and the people. Are the news media giving the people what they want, or are the people getting what the news media thinks they want? I'd have to go with the former.
If people were not interested, and did not react to this type of "news," the news media would not report on it. Instead, however, they do, so the news media continues to report on it. In 2008, it is just as likely for a story about a celebrity to run on A1 than a story about an important city council decision.
In a lot of ways, I think that is sad. This kind of proves that people value what is fun to them as much as what is important. In a way I think that is okay, but on the other hand it is sad. I do believe that there is a place for the tabloid-esque articles, just not on the cover of a newspaper.
The best way to explain it is in one sentence: The news media ought to give the people what they need to know, not what they ought to know. If that means bumping the story about Britney's new look to B6, then so be it.
Note: I suppose I should explain my post's title. I view Britney Spears's performance on MTV's Video Music Awards as a starting point for the year I have been referring to. If you can recall, the performance was talked about a lot in the news media, and the relentlessness continued from there. I thought the title was appropriate, and I do not mean to overstep any boundaries.
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1 comment:
I totally agree: the media should give people what the need to know, not what they want to know. There is a big difference between those.
On the other hand, I have come to realize (as sad or as harsh as this may sound), that many people in America just simply do not and will not understand certain news stories. Virtually anyone can read a story about Britney Spears and understand what it is going on, what happened, etc. However, not everyone will be able to comprehend a story about Iraq or about the election.
So then you have to ask yourself, is it better to write a story meant to entertain that the masses will read, or to write a story that only a few will understand?
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