Imagine you are a movie star, living in a large mansion in the Hollywood Hills. It’s lunchtime and you make plans to meet your producer/friend at The Ivy. What should you wear? What should you order? These thoughts will no doubt run through your mind; you will inevitably be photographed by at least a dozen paparazzi, and within three hours, your distant cousin who lives in Oklahoma will know that you had a bad hair day when you went on your lunch date.
Welcome to the world of celebrity blogging. Media blogs have taken Hollywood by storm. There has clearly been a shift in the way entertainment news is distributed: we no longer must tune into Access Hollywood at 7:00; we can receive instant celebrity gossip via blogs. Does this mean that there is a shift from traditional news forms to more technological ones? I think yes.
According to Melissa Gerry, author of Celebrity Blogs: the Impact of New Media(http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/26280/celebrity_blogs_the_impact_of_new_media.html?page=2), the marketplace has changed: older media outlets are seeing the change that blogs have created. Blogs have the ability to deliver information and generate buzz 24/7. In essence, traditional entertainment programs are actually looking to blogs for the latest stories to report on. Some of these well known blogs include JustJared (www.JustJared.com/), TMZ (www.tmz.com/), and Perez Hilton (www.perezhilton.com/).
While these celebrity blogs pose as entertainment for the general public and aid television and magazines in finding stories, I cannot help but think of what it does to those working in the industry. Can these individuals really keep up with the relentless attention that these blogs are creating? For instance, pull up any one of these entertainment sites and you will most defiantly see a recent post about Britney Spears: What did she wear to court? How many hours has it been since she has seen her children? Did she wear shoes when she went into the gas station? While Spears may be one example, there are plenty more. Have you ever stopped to think of how you would react if someone snapped photos of you while you left the gym or video taped you driving to work? Perhaps these blogs have crossed a personal boundary. While these sites are entertaining and informative, they also are invasive. I mean, should we really care that Angelina took Maddox to see a movie Tuesday night?
10 years ago, this was not an issue. Today, it is more like a daily routine. Celebrities know to expect it, and us…well…we have these blog sites on our list of favorites. Do you think this is simply becoming an accepted downside to the business, or has this type of blogging gone too far?
2 comments:
We hardly even need TV now! Everything is available to us at the simple click of a mouse. Celebrity gossip (I think) has gone too far. Can we not let them eat lunch in peace?
I love this post! Celebrity blogs are definitely something I look at multiple times a day, but I also think they've taken the celebrity obsession too far. It's almost creepy how much we care about Britney's latest move and Lindsay's trip to rehab!
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