Lindsay, LeBron, Who Cares?

Posted on July 8, 2010 
Filed Under Media, Personal, Social Concern

Today as I scanned the “most popular” headlines at an online news source, I found it odd that two of the top three most widely read and followed news stories are about celebrities.

Lindsay Lohan’s public self-destruction is, at this time, the most popular news item at Google News. While it all seems rather sad, why is this young woman’s outrageous behavior of such interest to so many?

Tonight NBA superstar LeBron James will announce which team he will play for next season, via an hour-long ESPN special. He needs 60 minutes to tell us something that could be captured in two sentences?

Together, these two pop icons have generated more news reports than these other top stories combined. In fact, a quick tally revealed that people are more interested in Lindsay and LeBron than these other  important items:

Pretty lopsided “news,” don’t you think? And something I heard on the radio this morning makes me wonder: is the media driving this celebrity culture – or are consumers driving the demand for such reporting?A sports writer observed that ESPN is airing what is plainly an hour-long LeBron James infomercial because lots of people will watch it. The public demand for such programming is there, and the network is happy to deliver to the audience (and deliver that audience to advertisers).

Its a chicken-egg question. What do you think?

What's driving our celebrity culture?

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Comments

One Response to “Lindsay, LeBron, Who Cares?”

  1. Wendy on July 8th, 2010 8:38 am

    I too saw the news this morning about the Russian/US Spy Swap and glanced down and saw a photograph of Lindsay L’s fingernail dissing her judge. While the Russian Spy story was incredibly more “newsworthy”, and I would like to say I didn’t care, but I did go ahead and read about Lindsay. It’s my personal opinion, but I think it is the part of me that wants to be connected to the world in a social way that was interested in that. When the news media reports on celebrities, it’s someone the whole world knows and can relate to (well, hardly relate)and talk about – in a fragmented way, I feel connected to the rest of the world reading about “someone else” we all know and (love or hate – you insert your opinion). I don’t know if this is good or bad about us, but I think it has to do with the “social” aspect of society.

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