Throughout the duration of my blog, I will be discussing the invasion of privacy on the lives of celebrities. I plan on focusing on the following major questions: Why does no one stop tabloids from printing blatant lies about celebrities? Why are people so interested in celebrity gossip and what type of pressure does this put on the news industry? How did society lead news to this point/why do we care so much about the personal lives of celebrities? Do most people simply assume that the lack of privacy is a part of the “job” of being a celebrity, or do we see a flaw in the system?
As a Communications major, I have taken classes that discuss issues such as these in our mass media systems. I have interviewed my professor, Dannagal Young about these questions because she has a specialty is mass media and politics. I plan on incorporating her feedback as a professional input to the evidence that I find on this topic.
Is it ethical to expect celebrities’ lives to be open books?
One major question brought up in the review of my blog proposal was the question of which celebrities I would specifically be focusing on. My intention is to just provide a general overview depending on what articles or facts I found fitting for the blog. In other words, all celebrities are fair game. I will not be posting about just singers or just actors. However, if there are any specific celebrities that the class would like to hear about, I am completely open to suggestions and willing to focus my searches to keep the class interested in my blog.
Another major question raised in the review of my blog proposal was to ponder the question of why people care so much about the personal lives of celebrities in the first place. Once this is understood, tabloids can feed into our subconscious cravings for the latest updates on celebrity scandals. After extensive research, I have found a very valuable article from Psychology Today in which author Carlin Flora answers this question.
Although the article is from 10 years ago, the same themes of celebrity obsession can be seen today in people of varying age groups. The article claims that psychologically, we think of people whom we recognize well as acquaintances.
“In our global village, the best targets for gossip are the faces we all know.” – Carlin Flora from Psychology Today
Since people worldwide can look at George Clooney or Brad Pitt and recognize them without a shadow of doubt in their minds, these men are already set up for us to psychologically crave more personal information about them. Now I challenge you to ask yourself – have you ever wondered why you care so much about your favorite celebrity’s personal life?
Marisa,
I like your topic because it is similar to mine, in that we are both talking about the invasion of privacy on celebrities. I also like how you are still open to suggestions about what celebrities to write about. Personally, I think Miley Cyrus would be an interesting person to read about because of all that has happened to her recently. I think the question – “why we are so interested in celebrities?” is a good one because I thought about it, and can’t answer it myself! You can also talk about how all that attention effects celebrities both physically and emotionally.
Hi Marisa,
I think you picked a very interesting topic. I like how you related being a celebrity to having a job. You’re right; it does seem like it’s a full time job always being watched by the press. Celebs always have to be on their guard. I would like to suggest a celebrity to take a look at: Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge. Kate is married to Prince William, who is 2nd in line to the English throne. Kate is the mother of Prince George, who is 3rd in line. She has to be extremely careful about everything she does, more so than other celebrities because anything she does reflects back on the royal family. She is constantly talked about in many tabloids, especially now that she is pregnant with her 2nd child.
Hey Marisa,
I’m really interested in your blog topic and I love the outline and theme you have going for your blog, the color theme you’ve chosen is perfect for your topic, in my opinion. I think some prime celeb examples that you could focus on would be Beyonce for sure, she’s got so much going on day to day, and I definitely think you could find a lot of tabloids and information on her. Along with Beyonce, you could focus on Kim Kardashian and Kanye, I don’t pay too much attention to celebrity gossip but from what I do hear and pay attention to, those two are always on the cover of today’s tabloids. This topis is so interesting to me because I’ve never actually thought about why everyone is so intrigued by the lives of celebrities, it’s fascinating! Agreeing with both Leah and Justin, I think you could definitely include how the press and the paparazzi effect the lives of celebrities every single second of the day. From the time they wake up and check their emails, and phones, to simply walking to the grocery store, their lives are immensely effected by the press, and I can’t wait to stay tuned to your blog and keep reading.
Good luck on your upcoming posts,
Taylor Fisher
Hi Marisa,
I think your blog topic is really interesting and is something that everyone will definitely want to read more about. It could also be very interesting if you discussed reality television stars such as the Kardashian’s, the real housewives, and those on the bachelor/bachelorette because the intention of those shows is to share their personal lives with the world, and yet many get bothered when people try to find out about their lives outside of the show. So I think it would be intriguing to get more information on why they choose to participate in such shows, and why people are so interested in shows like that. Like the others, I think it’s a really good idea to include the effect of the paparazzi on celebrities. I’m looking forward to reading more about this topic in your upcoming blog posts!
Good luck,
Leila de Rochefort
That’s interesting that your brain automatically sorts the people you recognize into acquaintances. That’s interesting that we also like to hear more gossip about the people we know and that our brains think that we know famous people. I would be more interested in something that happened to one of my friends than a stranger. So that makes sense that if we think we know a celebrity that we would be more interested in what happens to them.
https://www.eurweb.com/category/news-2/black-celebrity-gossip-gossip/