the problem with the priorities of today's media

Almost every time I turn on my television, the name Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, or some other former teen idol gone bad is on the news. There seems to be some type of obsession between the American media and celebrity gossip. I constantly see headlines similar to the following; “Is J.Lo pregnant or is that just a tummy bulge?”, “Jay- Z and Beyonce just spent a week long vacation on a private yacht“, or “Lindsay Lohan just got out of rehab, what is in store for her next?”.

I am tired of hearing about all of this useless information. Although to some it may not be useless, I personally find celebrity news to be not only deriding but sometimes just plain unnecessary. It does not benefit or better us as a society to publicize the lives of celebrities. I think the priorities of today’s media is entirely out of whack. This is not to say that all news sources today share the same celebrity news infiltration but many newspapers, magazines and national news television programs have been increasing the amount of celebrity news, and it sometimes seems to override the news stories with actual importance.

I was recently on the Yahoo! home page and I noticed that there was a branch of Yahoo! labeled as new. This new section titled OMG is a website completely devoted to celebrity news; candid pictures of celebrities with their children, in grocery stores, or just doing everyday things. These photos plastered the webpage, while bright italicized headlines boldly stated the most current embarrassing chapter in the life of these celebrities. I was completely shocked to find that an entire section of a well known online resource such as Yahoo! would add something as distasteful as OMG.

It appears as though many news stories are intentionally withheld from the media because so much celebrity gossip is taking its place. I know that not every single story of importance can be publicized but there are some stories that people need to know about besides the size of Victoria Beckham’s new Hollywood mansion.

For instance, Megan Williams, a 20 year old black woman
from West Virginia who was kidnapped, beaten, tortured, stabbed and sexually assaulted by six white men and women and barely made it out alive. I heard almost nothing about this story on the news and not nearly enough attention was given to this issue from media. This is not to say that there should be an extra emphasis on events this brutal, but its important that the public know about this and we aren’t constantly paying so much attention to the Nicole Richies and Britney Spears of the world.

Another time that I recall the media to be overflowing with a celebrity’s personal information was in my last months of high school. In early May there seemed to be a fixation on Paris Hilton going to jail. At certain times I felt like if chose only to watch television that would seem to have been the only important event taking place in the world at the time.

In an article I read recently in BlogCritics magazine, writer Rick Vasser shows the same concern for the lack of seriousness and importance in some of today’s news, and how the media’s spotlight is always shining on celebrities. But what Vasser mentions most importantly, is the reason as to why that spotlight is always shining, it’s because we as a country continue to be drawn into a vicious cycle: as long as we keep on watching, there will always be someone to show it to us.

I guess this means that we are partially responsible for the celebrity news that is being exhibited in the media today. I don’t think that it would reasonable (or feasible) to eliminate all the celebrity gossip that exists in the world, but I do think that if we watched it less and had a lower tolerance for it then there wouldn’t be so much of it everywhere.


Although I do find the general public does hold some responsibility,I also question the ethics of journalism and I believe that the rest of the responsibility lies upon journalists. There are so many events that not only occur within our nation but outside of it as well. Isn’t the media responsible to keep us informed of those occurrences to some degree, instead of concentrating on so many superficial issues?



According to the Journalism Code of Ethics there is a responsibility to be “honest, fair and courageous in gathering , reporting and interpreting information” and it seems me like the media needs to brush up on some of those things, especially when we are living in a nation that sacrifices meaningful and insightful news stories for brash celebrity news.