Tiffen states “the Function of the press in society is to inform, but its role is to make money” (1994: 61). The increased focus on profitability in media firms has reconfigured the manner in wh
ich news stories are presented and what constitutes as “news” itself. For instance, in reference to the current media environment, Park states “news remains news only until it has reached the persons for whom it has news interest” (1999: 2). The concept of “newsworthiness” hence hinders journalistic ideals of “objectivity” and constructs sensationalized stories which focus on the “unordinary within the ordinary” (Street, 2001: 22). Furthermore, the media race for advertising funds has resulted in a focus on “light entertainment” as “advertisers tend to avoid programmes with serious complexities […] that interfere with the buying mood” (Herman and Chomsky, 1999: 171).
Soft news -- including celebrity, gossip, scandal and human interest stories – thus jumped from 15 percent to 43 percent in the period between 1977 and 1997 (Koch, 1998: 5). While t
his essay was unable to obtain data that is more current, percentages of soft news in dailies and weeklies are probably higher. For instance, the esteemed New York Times was one of the first news outlets to report on the Paris Hilton sex scandal and “that an anonymous source was offering samples to media outlets” (Cashmore, 2006: 144). In conjunction, political stories are often reconfigured to serve the “amusement society” by the blurring of differences between political leaders and celebrities and the dramatization of political events (Cashmore, 223: 2006). It is thus questionable to explore the practice of blogging in relation to “traditional conceptions of journalism” which scarcely exist.
For this purpose, this essay shall focus on the practice of blogging in relation to celebrity news.
ich news stories are presented and what constitutes as “news” itself. For instance, in reference to the current media environment, Park states “news remains news only until it has reached the persons for whom it has news interest” (1999: 2). The concept of “newsworthiness” hence hinders journalistic ideals of “objectivity” and constructs sensationalized stories which focus on the “unordinary within the ordinary” (Street, 2001: 22). Furthermore, the media race for advertising funds has resulted in a focus on “light entertainment” as “advertisers tend to avoid programmes with serious complexities […] that interfere with the buying mood” (Herman and Chomsky, 1999: 171). Soft news -- including celebrity, gossip, scandal and human interest stories – thus jumped from 15 percent to 43 percent in the period between 1977 and 1997 (Koch, 1998: 5). While t
his essay was unable to obtain data that is more current, percentages of soft news in dailies and weeklies are probably higher. For instance, the esteemed New York Times was one of the first news outlets to report on the Paris Hilton sex scandal and “that an anonymous source was offering samples to media outlets” (Cashmore, 2006: 144). In conjunction, political stories are often reconfigured to serve the “amusement society” by the blurring of differences between political leaders and celebrities and the dramatization of political events (Cashmore, 223: 2006). It is thus questionable to explore the practice of blogging in relation to “traditional conceptions of journalism” which scarcely exist.For this purpose, this essay shall focus on the practice of blogging in relation to celebrity news.
