I hate it, but everytime I think of "Public Sphere", the word "media" immediately pops into my mind. I know that they are not the same thing, but to me the media is the one that truly affects the average person, considering not everyone reads scholar's essays or books about what is going on. The average person turns on their television, reads a newspaper, or goes online to get the information they want to know. Of course, all people like to entertain themselves and a common way to entertain oneself is to watch television. But sometimes the entertainment news come across as obnoxious and insensitive, and it seems as if the people in the entertainment television business don't care what they report on as long as they get the story first, and, along with it, higher ratings. Some of these stories are just too much. Like when Brittany Murphy died, some online entertainment news websites posted Murphy's mother's 911 call. This was completely unnecessary and really low, even for a gossip website. Also, the Tiger Woods scandal. His extramarital affairs became public, and the news networks were competing to have his mistresses on their show first. It's ridiculous, if you ask me. No one needs to know that information because it is private. Maybe a lot of people don't feel this way because they love to know all the juicy gossip, but I'm sure most people are tired of these insensitive stories. Even the "serious" news networks are starting to put entertainment segments in their reports. I guess when it comes to stuff like this, I take a modernist stance. I can't help but think that many of the stories that are unecessary and too private to be talked about.
I agree with you. I think situations like the ones you mentioned really need to stay private. I don't believe the media takes into consideration the people who are involved. For instance you mentioned Murphy's mother calling 911 being aired on television. The media doesn't understand how that affects her mother and the rest of the family members. That was a private phone call that should have stayed between the mother and the 911 operator.
ReplyDeleteI believe that my opinion of modernist and post modernist for the Brittany Murphy case has changed. At first I would say that media should keep certain aspects of the death private, especially the 911 call. Now that a lot of time has passed and the death record still says “natural causes/deferred”. Now I believe that every aspect of the situation should be made public. No one dies of natural causes at the age of 32. I have become a modernist in this case.
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