The audience has changed because people are easily bored and expect that television, radio, print and the internet will keep them continually occupied.
Audiences are not the only ones facing dramatic changes; journalism has seen massive changes in recent years. An example is the notion of ‘celebrity’ stories. Audiences want to know more about them to satisfy their hunger for being entertained.
All mediums of the media industry (especially the internet) are including more stories about celebrities because the audience buy it right up. They have found a new angle that sells and makes top dollar.
Pew Research Centre has discovered that the Public Blames Media for Too Much Celebrity Coverage. The graph Who Leads the way in Celebrity Coverage shows the results of a poll conducted by the Pew Research Centre.
Just this morning I was on ninemsn.com and there was a huge picture of Britney Spears smiling at me with an article about how she is back on track in her life. Now I knew that the article would be pointless dribble about how a ‘good friend’ of Britney’s has confirmed that the singer is doing well and getting on with her life. I also knew that the only ‘credible’ sources in the whole article would be Who and NW magazines.
But I read on anyway. Somewhere in me there was the need to know the gossip of Britney Spears’ life… and then there was an article about Jenifer Aniston being pregnant! To John Mayer and it’s so sad because Brad and Jen would have had beautiful babies and then I realised that I knew too much.
Why and how had this occurred? Media outlets such as ninemsn.com have presented me with these celebrity stories and driven me to know more about them. Ninemsn.com has researched my demographic right down to knowing what I prefer for breakfast in the morning and so have been very clever in marketing to me these celebrity stories. Ninemsn.com has already figured out that I prefer celebrity gossip, lifestyle and beauty pages over the sport or business sections.
Just this morning I was on ninemsn.com and there was a huge picture of Britney Spears smiling at me with an article about how she is back on track in her life. Now I knew that the article would be pointless dribble about how a ‘good friend’ of Britney’s has confirmed that the singer is doing well and getting on with her life. I also knew that the only ‘credible’ sources in the whole article would be Who and NW magazines.
But I read on anyway. Somewhere in me there was the need to know the gossip of Britney Spears’ life… and then there was an article about Jenifer Aniston being pregnant! To John Mayer and it’s so sad because Brad and Jen would have had beautiful babies and then I realised that I knew too much.
Why and how had this occurred? Media outlets such as ninemsn.com have presented me with these celebrity stories and driven me to know more about them. Ninemsn.com has researched my demographic right down to knowing what I prefer for breakfast in the morning and so have been very clever in marketing to me these celebrity stories. Ninemsn.com has already figured out that I prefer celebrity gossip, lifestyle and beauty pages over the sport or business sections.
The media exist in a commercial context and so each article written and every program created is hoping to reach an audience to finance future articles, programs and most often this happens to be through entertainment.
More emphasis on celebrity and other facile forms of entertainment have meant that media organisations are finding the quickest ways to satisfy their audiences. This is costing professional journalism because it is continuing to dwindle. There are less and less investigative news stories and more about entertainment. Entertainment rather than news is becoming the most efficient, cost effective way of making money out of audiences. It is becoming a circular pattern of entertainment to audience equals money and this is diminishing credible journalism.
The funds for investigative journalism are being cut because it is easier for newspapers to cut and paste stories directly from Reuters or AAP.
Shared stories also become a problem as the diversity of opinions and view points are no longer presented. Audiences have more trouble participating if they don’t know the different points of view that are associated with events. Political policy is one of the main events that audiences have little understanding of because all the facts are no longer presented to them.
The platform of journalism and the media is changing and they change with social and cultural impacts. Technology has changed the way that audiences obtain news, information and entertainment. The media has to continually find ways to sell their product and currently the social landscape has moved away from selling investigative journalism to a society that constantly wants to be entertained.
Does anyone else feel that media outlets sell more entertainment than news?
Picture of Britney Spears obtained from http://www.twd.in/entertainment/
1 comment:
I agree with you Elyce. A lot of people that I talk to are quick to dismiss the tabloid facet of the journalism industry. I think it is pretty hard to deny the significance of tabloid when considering the amount of revenue that these sorts of publications generate.
I like to think that I'm not interested in celebrity gossip, but I must say that I prefer to read celebrity news during leisure time and only read about world news or local politics when I am in the frame of mind to do so. Let's think about it, I read your blog post because it was pink (I like pink) and I saw Britney (I'm interested in what is going on with Britney). I guess that makes you a successful journalist, because you got me to read your work! There you go, you're hired! Tabloid sucks us in when we are weak, but I cannot necessarily say that this genre is not worthwhile.
Liz.
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