Monday 2 May 2011

Cult of the Celebrity- Exam Practice

Looking at an edition of a national tabloid, in what ways are celebrity related stories presented in this edition? Account for these representations.

Celebrity stories are presented as exciting, important and newsworthy. For example an article in The Sun is about Katie Price getting a new tattoo with her new boyfriend, where the paper mentions the "X" over her Peter Andre tattoo. Although many people get a tattoo, this report appears to be more newsworthy because she is a celebrity with newsworthy history- such as her ex husbands. This represents celebrities lives as dramatic like a soap opera, which represents them as somewhat unreal or extra-ordinary.

Similarly, celebrity related stories are represented as important for having a neagtive effect on society. For example an article called X rated TV ban is about how celebries are often presented in the media and how it can have a negative impact on audiences. This is surtured by shots of scantily-clad celebs like Rihanna and Christina from their performance on the X Factor, which previously caused concern in the media for their inapprpriate dancing before watershed. This brings up issues of desensitisation, as more and more scantily clad celebrities are seen in the media,X Factor possibly thought audiences were desensitied to it and therefore added it to their 8pm results show. It also brings up issues to do with the copy cat theory. This is also sutured by a shot of little childrens bikinis with the caption "skimpy kids clothes", something that recently has become a moral panic in society. Although this issues have been a concern in the media, it all just reinforces negative steroetypes about celebiries; that they are bad and negatively influence their audiences. However this relies on audiences being passive.

A double page spread in The Sun was dedicated to a former Boxing champion, Hnery Cooper that recently died, which presents celebrity stories as "loyal shrines" in the media. The title "Our 'ero 'enery" is informal mode of address which puts audiences and the newspaper as loyal fans of the celebrity. They have selected a shot of him winning against Mohammed Ali, probably his biggest achievement, again relecting the positivity and loyalty of the newspaper, especially because he was the "Brit who knocked down Ali" showing patrotism. It appears that when a celebrity is alive, the media negatvily represent celebrities and comment on the bad things and their flaws. However, when they die, they become loyal and celebrate their acheivements, which argubaly is seen in this text.

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