Friday, March 20
The Media coverage of celebrity deaths...
After having finally and successfully gotten rid of feudalism (thanks to the French Revolution, Egalité, Liberté, Fraternité...democracy et al) - we, the society have finally and successfully reinvented it...
Only that these days we have replaced nobility (perhaps even the Gods?) with celebrity.
We put perfect commoners on pedestals, endowing them with rights, privileges and too much money, thereby perpetuating a system of inequality and privileges that we have ever since sought to overcome...
At the same time - ironically - we love to see the same people fall from said pedestal, fall from grace, die tragic and untimely deaths, struggle with alcolism etc...we indulge in their plight, because somehow (in a very dismal way) it reminds us of the fact that they're only human after all - and that they're just like us at the end of the day...
This is so insane!
We need to ask ourselves why we put these people on pedestals in the first place, endowing them with wealth and privileges, thereby creating a caste of over-privileged individuals - if we so feel the need to see them fall from said pedestal, if we so strive for equality?!
Do we really need this? Do we need Gods that we see fall only to remind us that the Gods are human just like us...
The down-side of our dismal obsession with celebrity is the constant media-coverage of every of these people's moves...whether they stage this coverage themselves (Jane Goody for instance) or whether "celebs" find it hard to deal with papps and the loss of their privacy.
Following people around even to their death bed is in poor taste - on either side of the equation...
Photographing individuals on their way to a dying loved-one is equally in poor taste and as superfluous and necessary as a bleeding mole on your foreskin...
I think most people would agree that this type of media-coverage has little to nothing to do with 'journalism'.
This society has become scaringly decadent...showing obvious signs of decline and disintegration.
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32 comments:
Totally agree. I've found the media storm around the Richardson's particularly offensive and in poor taste and the magazine "dedications" to Jade Goody have been appalling although in keeping with the coverage she garnered when in good health. I can't help thinking about her kids though... is such coverage helping them? Or worse - damaging them?
Hi there Steve :-)
I cannot imagine that exploitation helps...
It's so hypocritical, the media pretend concern while they're only interested in selling more papers...
I couldn't agree more with regard to the death of Natasha Richardson - I found the press intrusive and obnoxiuos...
How the Hell are you supposed to walk out of a hospital as a mother, sister, husband - having just switched off life support of a loved one - haunted by dozens of reporters?!
How fucking cruel and inhumane is that...and who really needs that type of coverage, who really needs these images?
I don't...been there, done that...in *real* life, in my life...I know exactly what it looks like...
C'est sure faudrait vraiment revoir la définition du mot journalisme.
On vit dans un monde de fou, plus les années passent plus on regressent humainement.
C'est glauque, c'est vraiment le mot pour définir cette univers.
Stone
I think Jade would be much better off if she spent her last few moments in private with her little boys.
I too cannot understand why we create these privileged people only to abuse them. It seems insane.
I really fail to understand the allure of some of these so-called celebs and wonder what is lacking in me, that I just don't understand why so many others seem to want to buy magazines with their favourite 'star' plastered all over the cover.
What sort of people are being produced - how sad is this for the future of society.
(I sound very pompous today don't I?)
**plus les années passent plus on regressent humainement**
Tu sais, Dihya, je crains que t'as raison...c'est triste à dire, mais au moins par rapport à la télé et par rapport à ce qui s'est passé à cette école, je te donne raison sur toute la ligne!
T'as entendu ce qui s'est passé à Lyon...wtf?!
Cleo, I couldn't agree more!
It's weird, isn't it...somewhat schizophrenic!
BTW, how is your cold? Mine is getting worse...looks like I might have to postpone that exam...
Re-bonjour, French Fancy :-)
Pompous...LOL...seriously, I know what you mean...the answer is...they have NOTHING!
So many of these people are completely unispiring, dull and boring in my book...especially the "famous-for-being-famous-fraction"...SHUDDER!
Plus, these people are often so fucking self-absorbed (not very pompous here :)...how boring is that.
If I had to spend (waste) a day with someone like Victoria Beckham who spends 90% of her day and her energy on her looks (!!), I would throw myself in front of a commuter train, seriously.
These people have NOTHING - many of them are scaringly talent-free...what they have is media coverage.
You can make anyone look interesting these days...just hand the person some shades, and follow the person around with a camera and a "security team"...and people will stop and stare.
Being (or getting into) in the media seems to have become the number ONE priority...even if that means acting out your own death - live on TV...
Andy Warhol would be spinning in his grave...I don't think he could have forseen this.
Oui j'ai entendu ce qui c'est passé à Lyon, un cretin a rien trouver de mieux que d'essayer sa carabine à plomb sur les parents qui attendaient devant une maternelle. Non mais il faut avoir quoi dans la tête pour être aussi con.
Not surprising, but brilliant post, Stone.
I've only recently become aware of Jade Goody and her selling her story so she'd could put the funds away for her sons 'cos she grew up poor. Being over here in the US, and never seeing an episode of any Big Brother show, I have no idea how intrusive the media became with her.
The photos of Liam Neeson and Natasha's mom and family? Sickeningly invasive. Paps hounding Michelle Williams and Matilda afer Heath's death? Sickeningly invasive.
I used to read a few gossip sights daily, not that I was overly fascinated with people's fall from grace, which actually angered me so, but I followed careers and upcoming movies. I hated the negative press for my favorite actors and actresses. I hated it! I already know they're human, just with an 'in-your-face' career. I don't need to see their cooters and crotches and stumbles out of nightclubs.
These days, I don't bother as much anymore. I barely know anyone's new film coming out like I used to (though this wasn't a bad thing to know sinced I happen to love movies to death) and I have no idea who is dating whom, divorcing or cheating anymore (this was trivial bullshit I really and truly didn't need to know). You know what? I don't miss the crappy info. at all! I could care less. Hope my faves are healthy and happy in life, and I'm finished.
Great post!
"This society has become scaringly decadent...showing obvious signs of decline and disintegration." ~Stone
Sadly, you're SPOT ON!
Aussi malade plutôt...tu dois vraiment être cinglé...
***Not surprising, but brilliant post, Stone.*** LMAO :)
**I don't miss the crappy info. at all!**
EXACTLY! If you're not exposed it, you don't miss it...it's that simple.
They create needs...pretty much like a cliffhanger...they create a certain tension, interest - and just like a soap opera, this makes you want to know the "rest of the story"...how it will end...only that this is no fiction but real people in the real world, with real feelings...
PS: I wasn't sure about the term "disintegration" in that context - seems it works :)
Anything you say really doesn't surprise me 'cos I'm fully aware of the brilliance that is ... Stone.
But seriously, I really don't miss it at all. And yes, they do have a pic of Liam and the 2 sons at the funeral. Shame...
Without wanting to, I witnessed the coverage of Ms. Richardson's death in horror. No thought to her mother, her husband, her young sons. It was sickening and there was no getting away from it - every time I went to check email, there was the latest speculation flashing on my computer screen. Horrible. I've tried to think about what might be done to save our culture from this sick obsession. I really believe it's having an unimaginable effect on all of us and we may be too far gone already. It hurts to think that because there are children in this world that I love dearly who are being saturated without having a choice not to be! I don't view tabloid websites and I don't buy entertainment gossip magazines. But as long as people go to Perez and the rest and buy the shit at the checkout counter, we can expect more of this and it will get worse. I wish the damn tabloids at the grocery store had to be covered like porn at a newsstand. Nothing is shocking anymore. So sad.
"Nothing is shocking anymore."
Exactly, Kai.
Soon, they'll be back to showing gruesome bloodshed on the covers of magazines, newspapers, etc. Young eyes will have a hard time avoiding it, especially at these checkout counters.
People will become numb as this becomes the norm.
***Anything you say really doesn't surprise me 'cos I'm fully aware of the brilliance that is ... Stone.***
LMAO PART TWO :)
***sickening and there was no getting away from it***
So true, Kai...I don't read tabloid magazines either, I was watching Sky News until I had enuf of their "aggressive" coverage and then I turned to the BBC in the hopes that the topic wouldn't be dissected...I finally turned my TV set off.
But that's the problem, isn't it...you simply cannot get away from it, it's all over the fucking place.
***who are being saturated without having a choice not to be!***
So true! You almost have no choice - unless you completely boycott the media...
***People will become numb as this becomes the norm.***
And that's exactly the problem, Akilah...you name it! People become numb...habituation is all I'm saying.
PS: Most peculiar word verification term today: *jawncrug*
Sounds like something weird :)
On people becoming numb, Dr. Pinkola Estes talks about this in Theatre of the Imagination. She calls it something like the normalization of violence (and I think being drowned in sleazy tabloid "Journalism" and throw in reality TV too - qualifies as violence - it feels like an assault to my soul.) Anyway, she talks about the harm this normalization of violence does to our spirits and our culture. It's serious stuff.
I think the normalization of violence is primarily being accomplished through video games.
The degradation of women is being accomplished through "reality" tv.
I don't know who Jade is or what happened in Lyon (?)
I wonder if Liam Neeson is really aware of the cameras or what's going on around him. He's probably in a daze.
The way it was explained, the normalization of violence isn't just about violence per se (as in video games) - it's about anything "mildly arresting, or deeply shocking" that happens or that we see repeatedly. Thanks to Miley Cyrus it is now normal and acceptable for pre-teen and young teen girls to walk around with their tongues hanging out like thirsty dogs. The big difference to me is that you choose to sit down at a video game or you choose to let your child sit there for hours, but a lot of the rest of the stuff we're taking in (and our kids are taking in) is just out there - on kids tv, in commercials, in full view at the grocery store ... Yuck. Whether or not Liam Neeson is aware (and God I pray he is protected in a daze somehow), the rest of us are and it's bad.
Are you okay or just incredibly busy?
Stone ... come out come out where ever you are ... please. :)
Oh my gosh....jeeee....admit it guys...you have already alerted the CIA...;)
Not to worry, really, I was really busy, then sick (bronchitis - three weeks in total), then on holiday in Belgium for a week - seems we were really close by, FF...Lille - Brussels :-)
Plus, I was having a shitty time with one of my supervisors (power games anyone...)...and I had to sort that out and that took up so much time and energy and my good mood...
I'll be back online soon enough...just less than I used to be (it's a bit time consuming :)
But thanks SO MUCH for your concern guys - also for the emails!!!
Love,
Stoney :-)
What, no photos of Belgium??? Stoney!!!!! WTF!!!!
Seriously, glad to see you're ok.
But, I would like to see some photos of Belgium. You did take some, right? :)
Some...SOME....arggglll...a couple of hundred I would say.
Gotta do sth about my PC...it's so loaded up that it won't take my pile of 500+ pics from the Netherlands and Belgium *grins* :)
Or, buy a separate hard drive till you get more room on your pc. They run pretty low in price and I use one as a back up so I don't lose pics of the kiddies. You could shift pics to the external drive and upload current shots.
You take so many pics, I sure hope you've backed those babies up.
P.S.
I have a contact at the CIA so I won't be fined or jailed for calling them out to find you.
CIA, CIA...tsk tsk tsk...I should have known that...no one lives in a place that's called like the UN-dead LOL :)
So you're CIA...ha! THAT explains a LOT!
Thanks for the tip, but I need a new laptop...this one has become FAR too slow.
That's because your laptop ignores your commands and spends most of its time looking at all your gorgeous photography. ;)
LMAO :)
I'd like to put in my two cents, rather late than never, perhaps?
I've come to notice there is such a big, huge, gaping gap between "celebrity" and "artist". To be inspired by an artist is one thing... to pick someone apart like a little toy doll is dehumanizing - and it's quite shameless and sickening if you look at how proudly our society does this.
They're not gods. They can be inspiring humans, but not gods. It's the difference between humanism... and voyeurism. It's the difference between looking and staring.
Oh if I could beat up everyone who kept the whole paparazzi and press-coverage-of-funerals alive... I'd be busy 'till the day I died. In the end, you can only monitor yourself, perhaps inspire a few around you to look at things a certain way. The human race is not pretty. We can be glorious at times, but we're not pretty. We kill each other for fun. We terrorize each other for fun. Should we accept this, just because our species has always been like that? No. But have I given up on thinking we will one day all be rational and kind? Yes. It's, sadly, human. It's the way the world works. We can only influence so much with a one-man army. Even with a thousand-man army.
Is it disgusting? Yes. Is it distorted? Definitely. Would I do something about the absolutely disgusting manner in which celebrity deaths are exploited? Absolutely, immediately, wholeheartedly. Can I? No. I'd like to think that there's such a thing as Karma. To make it poetic; the blind will one day see, and will be blinded again by the rage of knowing all they have missed.
**I've come to notice there is such a big, huge, gaping gap between "celebrity" and "artist".**
ABSOLUTELY!!!!
Voyorism (a perfectly normal human trait I'm afraid) has completely gotten out of hand and is fed by greedy people who have figured out that you can make a LOT of money with perfectly superfluous news...
Yes, one can only monitor oneself, but most people see no harm in reading OK magazine.
That is true! People aren't aware of what they are funding anymore. They just pump money around to try and entertain themselves temporarily, feel better about themselves - and these magazines are such a waste of money, and they are even an investment in negativity.
These magazines are designed to fuck us up. They are designed to make people not care about the people whose lives they are invading, they are designed to remind women of how they will NEVER look, they are designed to make women think they can't understand men (as if they aren't human). They are designed to create the misery that founded hundreds of sitcoms. They are the foundation of our popculture, creating teens with distorted images of themselves, the world, and their peers.
**they are even an investment in negativity.
They are designed to remind women of how they will NEVER look.
They are creating teens with distorted images of themselves, the world, and their peers.**
Absofuckinglutely!!! How brilliantly put, Nell!!
Yeah, they're distorting people's self-image and they are creating needs (for insignificant news) that never existed in the first place!!!
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