Sensationalism strikes again
Melissa Lopez, '12 | Staff Reporter
Issue date: 11/6/09 Section: Opinion
|
That said, why do people have to know about everything and everybody, and why does the media sensationalize so much? I think one of the biggest components of media sensationalism stems from the fact that people eat it up. People want big breaking news about deaths, celebrities, missing kids, war and disease; the bigger the story the better.
The other major component is that there is news all of the time. You don't just have your daily paper and the nightly news anymore. The internet and 24-hour news channels make it possible to keep running a story over and over again. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, every time I turned on the news it was either stories about Katrina or Iraq. The pundits keep talking 24-hours a day to fill time, so they present less accurate information and they blow it up "bigger" that it should be.
A recent example is the death of Michael Jackson. It wasn't just his death that got over-sensationalized; it was almost everything he did. For years people only talked about the child molestation allegations, the way he treated his kids, his frail appearance and unusual fashion choices. Then in June he died. The news abruptly turned into a 24-hour tribute to Michael, King of Pop. Did anyone hear that other celebrities died right around the same time? Not really, until after the dust settled.
According to B4tea.com David Carradine died on June 3. Ed McMahon died on June 23, Farrah Fawcett passed on the same day as Jackson and Billy Mays on June 28. There were probably a lot of other people that died on that day, but we never heard about them. Paper just stuck to the celebrities. Anyone watch Kill Bill? Carradine played Bill. Ed McMahon was on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Farrah Fawcett was on Charlie's Angels and Billy Mays was the voice of daytime infomercials.
The news coverage of Michael Jackson lasted all summer long and you still see some coverage because of the film "This Is It" which released on Oct. 28. According to the Internet Movie Database, "This Is It" is a documentary that compiled interviews, rehearsals and backstage footage of a planned tour in London. Forbes reports that Jackson has raked in $90 million dollars since his death in June. The New York Daily News reports that 18 networks aired his memorial, and that 31 million people tuned in. Even more watched it online.