Celebrity Media

Essay by papersrule3College, UndergraduateA, September 2008

download word file, 9 pages 5.0

As if you already didn’t know, the Web has truly become the number one source for almost anything and everything. From the news being updated every minute, even every second, to bands promoting themselves, to networking sites, there are limitless ways for one to be occupied and entertained by simply sitting in front of the screen of a computer. People like to read stories about other people. “Witness the success of People magazine and the comparatively low readership of the issue-oriented New Republic. Even serious-minded readers want information about people. Many sophisticated readers, for example, think the personal life of politician’s sex life bears no relevance to the merits of his or her platform, but many think it says something profound about character”. (Hold the Press, pg 81, Hamilton, Krimsky)“I have actually heard it rumored that some people do not believe all they read in the newspapers! This indicated an awakening which, while it bodies ill for the old-fogy editor, augurs well for honest journalism.”

- C.C. Hunt, nineteenth-century newspaperman. In media, the fact that people do not believe all they read urges them to want to figure out the mystery of truth elsewhere, maybe in a different newspaper, magazine, and now even more conveniently, the web. Today’s news media is very powerful and different sources find their power in different ways. The web is a very reliable and prominent new source and allows people to believe unfiltered, untrue reporting and rumors.

“There is no longer such thing as an accusation too embarrassing to be printed if it seems to bear on a politician’s “character”.” Did it all begin with President Bill Clinton? Was this the big head-over-heals big deal for people to begin their obsession with the famous and celebrities? All reporters and journalist try to gather the same...