Topic 3. Has the media paid too much attention to celebrities?

Some people feel that television, newspapers, magazines, and other media pay too much attention to the personal lives of famous people such as public figures and celebrities, although others have different opinion about that. As far as I am concerned, I fully agree with that. Safe to say, more than 70% lights are focused on those famous people and all kinds of stars. This is because common people like to watch, to know about and to become famous guys.

Let us look at the television first, when you turn on the television, there are more than 60 channels in United States, but almost all channels are either talking about celebrities, movie stars, or showing some TV soap programs in which some movie star is in it. There are daily programs such as "E-Talk", "Access Hollywood", and "Entertainment Tonight" which concentrate on lives of famous stars. You can tell from their names. Not to mention there are a lot of awards such as Oscar award, Emmy award, Gold Globe, and so on. They are all about famous people. For the program of talking show, such as the Opera Show, or the Larry King Show, most guests that are invited to these programs are celebrities or politicians. And people love to watch that.

As for magazines or newspapers, it is the same situation. The first front page, second page and Headline are very often about famous people in different areas, even sometimes discussing the private life of famous people. It looks like if there are no celebrity photos on the front page, the subscription will decrease. People love to read stories about these stars or celebrities.

Especially, there are so many photographers who want to take pictures of these famous people's private life. They do not care how this will invade those people's privacy, because they know these photos of celebrities may help them get rich. Think about how Princess Diana died in 1997. Nobody can say that it has nothing to do with those paparazzis. The fact that people love to know everything about Dianna, one of the most famous celebrities in the world, killed the princess.

In conclusion, TV, newspapers and magazines need these celebrities to attract people's eyeballs. Otherwise, they cannot survive. And the average people seem to enjoy these personal lives of famous people or celebrities. So it is quite normal for media to pay so much attention to these big guys in the world.

Topic 3.1.

In this global information age where newspapers or magazines are always handy and TV has already turned so many people into couch tomatoes, few people concern about what these mass media has brought to us; we just accept it anyway. While I think the current focus on personal lives of famous people by these media requires further consideration.

Admittedly, it is reasonable for those media to continuously pay great attention to celebrities, the present fierce competition of the various media, the hard-to-pleased audiences' taste, the bombastic effect of coverage of these shining figures. No surprise sometimes that we feel we just know more than those famous people than themselves.

However, the consequence of such intense coverage on public figures' personal lives not only violate those being-focused on a certain level, but also do harm to us being-informed in some ways. Firstly, the privacy of those celebrities is ineluctably encroached from time to time. Sometimes the result is sad - do not forget the tragedy of Princess Diana. Secondly, our attention is certainly being diverted by such tide of craziness about celebrities. What about those viewers who want to see something about ordinary people' lives? How can mass media not concern more about those people suffering from pain and poverty?

Furthermore, one of the significant results of the current fad on famous figures is that their behavior is so influential while at the same time the media have little guarantee to ensure what the say and do will not mislead the mass public and even cause more problems. For example, if a famous figure is being asked about his or her point of view in a field he or she is not quite acquainted, the words presented to the audience may be misleading. This is especially harmful to those young people who are more likely to watch those programs of their idols, and also are mostly vulnerable to influential but harmful sayings.

In a sense, I don not quite appreciate the coverage of people in the center of spotlight, maybe once the mass media turn a little bit from their current focus to other aspects of the society, they may find out that the world is wonderful all the same.