So I happen to go to yahoo’s main page. The headline news is right across the top. The top story, the one featured with a picture and a tag line?
This is serious news. Above trivial news like:
Russia says it won’t deploy missiles near Poland
Senate finance panel members seek health plan changes
Financial regulation rises to top of agenda for G-20 summit
Bad habits take decade off life, study suggests
Can robots be programmed to make ethical decisions?
There’s a gigantic industry that has sprung up around people who can’t get enough celebrity gossip. Magazines pay people MILLIONS OF DOLLARS for pictures of their fucking babies. There are entire magazine racks, and entire TV shows dedicated to this bullshit. Who the hell cares?
I cannot at all comprehend giving a shit about any aspect of your favorite celebrity, let alone every little detail of their lives that these magazines try to come up with. I can’t explain it either - does it stem from people having so little self worth that they try to live vicariously through the lives of stars?
And it’s not even just the specialty magazines, shows, and websites that have this shit. As part of the entertainmentization of news, even mainstream media sources are spending more and more time on this irrelevant bullshit, leaving less time for actual important news that matters.
Do other countries have this? Are we in the US uniquely stupid in this regard?
If some aliens abducted me, and said “we’re about to obliterate your planet, unless you tell us not to” and they gave me a few minutes to think it over, and the first thing I saw was Jessica Simpson Mourns Her Dog, I would tell them to light the motherfucker up.
I’d ask the aliens if we can go rescue a few people first then I’d ask if I can push the button or flip the switch or however their planetary death ray worked.
I’m wondering, do you ever agree with any views people have here Michael? All I seem to ever see you doing is being a contrarian. Can’t ever seem to help keep your useless trap shut as long as you get to say the opposite of what everyone else is saying.
My point is that all he does is disagree and pick fights. Much like you are trying to with me now.
His opinion never is anything that people here normally agree with and if it is, it’s worded in a blatantly hostile manner as though he’s better than anyone here who thinks differently.
Also, in case you didn’t realize it, you’re defending yourself to probably the biggest troll in the history of these boards (Carol Stream, not fubbleskag), so the advice applies doubly to her.
Holy shit, I would’ve never guessed that a thread about celebrity gossip bullshit would become a hijack about Carol Stream within 10 posts, but there you have it.
I don’t really get the hatred for celebrity news followers. Humans are naturally very social creatures, and when you’re exposed to someone many times (through movies, for example) you form feelings for that person, even if you know logically that this person is a stranger to you and you to him/her. When you’re emotionally attached to someone, what happens in their lives matters to you. Add in the fact that these people are often beautiful and rich, and you get even more admiration as well as envy/a tendancy towards schadenfreude mixed in, and the result is of course people are more interested in Jessica Simpson’s coyote-snatched dog than the political happenings of a country really far away physically and emotionally or other political or worldwide news.
Personally, I confess celebrity gossip often makes me rolly-eyed, but I understand why it might be important to other people. And let’s be honest, most of what we read in the news on either spectrum doesn’t impact our day to day lives much. Plus, serious news tends to be fear and anxiety inducing. Celebrity gossip doesn’t. You could argue that the more stressful option is the stupider one.
As an aside, I think the uniquely unbalanced non-reciprocal relationship we have with celebrities accounts to a large degree for the idolatry and obsession that follows them. Normally, your energy spent on someone is returned to a certain degree and you develop a reciprocal relationship with them, or you don’t and pretty much never see them or interact with them and the emotional attachment fades. No so with famous people. And not being able to interact with someone at all tends to lead to them being placed on pedestals and to make you feel that receiving attention from them or having personal information about them is very important and means a lot about your social status. Having personal information about someone and passing it on to others is also kind of a distant means of interacting with that person.
Not saying it’s logical or that everyone feels the same way. But really, that’s generally par for the course when dealing with emotions.
I agree completely with the OP in all regards except the Planetary Destruction thing- I’d much rather be installed as Supreme Emperor Of The Planet and fix things that way.
Anyway, I’m currently studying a Masters in Journalism and you not believe some of the heated discussions we all end up having over “What qualifies as News?”
If it was up to me, Celebrity “News” would be confined to a small “Entertainment Section”, and would never (except in certain approved exceptions, like the death of a well-known and respected actor) be on the front page. I’d rather see more in-depth reporting on important events (and that doesn’t necessarily mean G20 Summits or The Middle Eastern Peace Process or that sort of thing either).
But other people take the “No, people need to know that two singers who haven’t released an album this century got drunk a night club that won’t still be open by the time the story runs, and they had a fight” view and wank on about the public’s “right to know” and “giving people what they want” and so on.
Hopefully I can get a job with the BBC when I graduate. Knowing my luck I’ll end up in the Entertainment News section.
Wow, so because the media feels the need to constantly report even minor celebrity news bytes on the chance that some people actually care, you feel all human life on earth deserves to be destroyed? I hope the aliens aren’t as touchy as that.
