With the rise of new media and the online realm, all of which are constantly needing to be updated, they now need more and more content to entertain the audiences. New media is also often acknowledged as containing 'trashier' news than it's print and broadcast counterparts, and having built a reputation that includes this concept and also offering a way for people to consume their entertainment news in an interactive, multimedia format, the further rise of this type of news is inevitable.
The impact of this for celebrities is that they will become a greater target, and for a wider variety of reasons, and in a particularly image driven world of the internet, any picture will do.
Website TMZ is solely devoted to entertainment news, and has built a strong following through the use of both online and traditional methods. They have a reputation as an entertainment news provider that will use any footage of a celebrity they can gain. Clips can be seen in which the reporters simply wait outside their homes or restaurants just to catch a grab of the celebrity, it does not have to be anything of great substance.
So is this fair and is this news?
One school of thought is that they have put themselves into the public eye, and must live with the effects of this lifestyle choice including the paparazzi and lack of privacy.
Another thought is that it should only be shown if it is actually in the publics interest. This is a duplicitous concept however, as who will decide what is in the public interest? Some people may find entertainment news to be genuinely interesting and would see that it is in their interest, whereas others view that it is rather simply something they are interested in and not actually in the publics interest.
In the blog Ethical Martini it explores the concept of whether celebrity gossip is actually news and newsworthy, and if it is in any way in the publics interest to receive this information.
Celebrity gossip is an interesting facet of news due to both the keen interest that the public take in this style of news, and also the way in which journalists go about gaining their news and how they will constantly toy the line of what is ethical, what is invading privacy, and always being sure to find the difference between fact and potential defamation.
Ian Richard, in his contribution to Journalism: Theory in Practice (Tapsall & Varley, 2008), has a positive view of the future of this type of media and the issue of invasion of privacy, stating:
"While the constant publication of information gained by journalists who have intruded into someone's privacy sometimes seems never ending, there are at least grounds for the hope that the tide will eventually be turned. or, if not turned, at least prevented from washing all before it." (p.196)
Personally this view seems a bit idealistic as with the building prominence of the internet seems to have only caused growth in entertainment news.
No comments:
Post a Comment