Hello fellow bloggers and blog readers,
This morning I did my usual routine. I woke up, fell out of bed, stepped on something sharp on my floor on the way to the restroom, brushed my teeth, and, after all that business was done, turned on my computer to check my email. I was disappointed by the splash screen for my yahoo email sign in. Celebrities' dirty laundry is consistently more important than reality.
Two weeks ago, the stock market crashed, and three banks 
.
had been involved in some of the biggest bank failures in
United States history. Oh, yes, and this little "story" was
somewhere near the bottom of the yahoo news heap. The
top story? Heather Locklear was arrested under suspicion
of DUI in California. Oh my, my, my what a situation we find
ourselves in.
Today, the same screen proclaimed as its top story that Beyonce has broken her long silence over her reason for not wanting an engagement ring from some guy I've never heard of, and who is therefore equally unimportant in my life. This on the same day the Dow plummetted 678 points. Beyonce? Honestly, who cares?
I find it mildly insulting that our information sources ( the media) assume that our miserable existence is sustained on stories about overpaid, overexposed members of the class I increasingly refer to as the celeberiate class. With all due respect to the current iteration of the media (which is to say, very little) they are to shame for putting profit margins consistently ahead of the need (that's right, NEED) for an informed public. With all due respect to Beyonce, I will submit that if she really thinks that her silence on her life's drama had me in a grip of annui, then she is sadly mistaken. To be honest, I'm not even sure why she's famous (is she a singer, an actress, or one of these hybrids we increasingly have these days who is talented at neither?).
THE DOW JONES EXPERIENCES A PRECIPITOUS DROP DAILY! Our lifeblood, the backbone of our and our children's well-being is drying up and the media supposes that our attention lies firmly entrenched in the lives of the overpaid and overpriviledged.
Bottom line: It is my contention that the popular media wields more influence and power than it has in our country at any other time in its history.
What is some evidence of this?
In a name: Paris Hilton. There is a supposed study sponsored by many leading professionals, on just what it is that has made this ubiquitous girl so famous. Even leading professionals are at a loss for just what it is that makes her so coveted. What does this tell us? Well . . . it is possible that she is truly blessed with an inner charisma that leads a populace craving for something, anything to fill their nine to five lives other than work, school, alchohol, screaming kids, and bills. Yes, that is possible. However, it is also possible that the media is so many times more powerful than it ever has been that almost anyone in the admittedly rare situation of being blessed with a golden cradle right out of the womb, mild good looks and an ego the size of Texas is going to get more attention than news that really affects our lives. Whatever the reason, it remains that the need for such a study is almost disturbing. It illustrates the befuddlment of professionals as to just what has made this completely average individual, a blank slate with the personality quotient of frozen yogurt, so very famous.
If you haven't figured it out already, I feel that the media really is to blame for the majority of the three ring circus act we've been subjected to with poor, poor Paris, and since around the time of the O.J. Simpson cavalcade on into the current era. This is an era in which stars are knighted before they have ever even done anything remarkable, subsist like plankton to the hull of a ship for a while, and are then snuffed out months later.
Daily we pass people in the mall, or in, God forbid, a Wal-Mart, only to hear whining children being pushed around in the shopping cart screaming for that new fuzzy toy or that new Hillary Duff record, only to hear their parents give in with little fight. We see these same people gazing at People magazine with it's story on how Angelina found love and Brad's cheating heart. Moresoe, we hear them talking about it in our cubicles at work, almost as if it monopolizes their time to a degree unheard of in our history. There are many people in our country who seem almost sleepwalknig through life. Is this a phenomenon unique to this country? Probably not. Is it at its worst in our country? Maybe. It is unique to our times? I think so. All this and more I seek to find out.
I'll admit I am as ignorant and anyone else in the why and wheretofores of popular culture and the reasons why we find ourselves in this present haze of infotainment, and worse yet, pop culture of the nastiest kind. Let's call it "trash culture" for the purposes of this blog. I don't wish to STAY ignorant.
Over the course of the next months, I hope to research and unearth the nature of this beast, and to discover the answers to my own questions, biases, et cetra. I believe that there are three primary sources at fault in this current state of affairs: the public; the media; and the government. But, if there be a weighted average, who is most at fault and why? This is to be the focus of my blog, a study in the influence and history of popular culture with its purpose in finding answers as to who is at fault for this current disaster of public relations; a didsaster in which celebutantes' lives are more important than whether or not we might be able to put food on our tables next month, or whether or not the war in Iraq will ever come to an end we can live with.
Thanks for reading.
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Some of the aspects that you mentioned can serve as a release for some people. If all that was on the news was the economy, deaths in Iraq, stalemate in Congress, and natural disasters, I do not think that people would have a more positive outlook on life.
I agree completely with you that the extent of pop culture has gone too far. I just think that sometimes a little pop culture is what you need in this world.
I certainly agree that we need a little pop culture in our lives to take our minds off our own troubles and that of the world as a whole. There is a lot of stuff going on that is worrisome, especially at this time. I do agree, however, that the American people in general are fixated too much on the gossip-y stuff. It seems that for too many years, thanks to the media, we have been more involved in the doings of O.J., Britney, Lindsey, Paris, etc. than what those in power are doing policy-wise. Many of us vote if we feel like it, or not, and when we do vote, we probably are not voting intelligently because we don't find out the facts. What can happen is exactly what has been happening lately because we don't know enough to hold those in power accountable. Hopefully, we have learned from all the recent goings-on. It's OK to read some gossip put out by the media, but it's much more important to be well-informed at the same time about the things that drive our country and the world.
I agree with you. It is just that I find it hard to talk about politics and pop culture in this election. It seems like the candidates have been celebritized and most of the media coverage is not on issues, but on personal life gossip and bickering. Even if media focused more on the election, I feel like the constant irrelevant attention the candidates would receive would discourage people from voting more than help the situation.
I am the first to admit I enjoy my celebrity dish - but I also pay attention to what is happening in the more pertinent news of the day. Most people, unfortunately, don't take the time to read "real" newspapers and instead focus all their time on Us Weekly and In Touch. I do agree with you that the mainstream media spends too much time on these stories, often putting the latest on Lindsay and Beyonce ahead of news on Iraq and the economy. By the time these more important stories are covered, many viewers have already turned the channel to a rerun of "Everybody Loves Raymond". I think there is a place for celebrity news, because they're, well, celebrities and of course I NEED to know what is happening with my Brit (her last album was actually REALLY good - don't hate!), but the explosion in these types of stories and the sheer number of celebrity rags (remember when it was just People and the Enquirer?) is unprecedented in our history.