This is a screen cap of the top stories from a celebrity gossip website. What kind of identity does this give to people in general? Does this show that people are more concerned with pointless celebrity stories than world conflicts/politics? Do you think this is an accurate representation of what concerns most people?
12 comments:
I do not think this s an accurate representation of what concerns people most. I am not completely convinced that this is a reliable source of identity and fandom, and like the descriptions says, this is from a celebrity gossip website and we all know how often celebrity gossip is real. With that being said, this image looks very put together to me, and if someone is considering a story titled, "Pakistani family refuses to kill daughter after gang rape" celebrity gossip, then I think that says something about our world. Not putting any fault on whomever posted this, but like I said, I am just not sure this comes from a reliable source. On the other hand, if I was to believe that this is a true representation, I would be deeply disappointed. I think that no one is at fault, but all too often, celebrity gossip is more intriguing than world problems for the majority of the population. I believe it's because people can step back, seemingly rise above and understand that they're not in the situation of the family whose daughter was raped, but be extremely interested in what is going on in the Kardashian world because who doesn't want to keep up with the Kardashians? To answer the final question, I do not believe that this is an accurate representation of what concerns most people.
I think that this is pretty accurate. I would read both just because they sound interesting, but people definitely like celebrity fandom. There is also the factor that celebrity fandom is a lot more accessible than real stories.
I love that the Kim Kardashian story came from a website called "superficial.com". The web address is number 2 on hottest web tops because people either are not fans, and engage in celebrity gossip as a guilty pleasure, hence the "superficial" webpage, or celebrity fandom is more serious than most current events. If the latter is true, I am sure fans do not appreciate their passion being found on a site declared superficial.
I doubt this images shows that "people are more concerned with pointless celebrity stories than world conflicts/politics", simply because it is from a site that targets a specific group of people? It's ridiculous to assume that readers of a gossip site do not also read current events at other sites more geared towards that. Quite frankly, I think it shows these fans are more versatile and willing to take the time to keep updated on other things besides celebrity gossip.
The news articles I would not go out of my way to read but id be more interested in the Pakistani story because it is not a cultural norm the situation that is headlined in the story. As far as Paris Hilton story Im not a fan of gossip even if its celebrities or friends. Gossip is a valid fandom and strikes peoples interests.
I do not think anyone, even the creator of a celebrity gossip wedsite, would consider "Pakistani family refuses to kill daughter after gang raped" a celebrity gossip story. Maybe they just posted the "top stories on the web right now" as the picture suggest and not just stories about celebrities. Even if this screen cap did not come from the most reliable source I do think this does give an accurate representation of some people, not all or even the majority, but some. It is common now a days for many people to know more about the Kardashian's than current events involving things such as politics. Some people find more interest sometimes in stories about celebrities. I do not think in any way though that this picture is saying that anyone who is intrested in facts about celebrities only care about "pointless celebrity stories" and not world events/politics. I enjoy hearing stuff about celebrities but also reading about other events too. This picture could represent a very small portion of the celebritiy fandom but not all. The screen cap makes someone think that all people care more about celebrities but I do not think that is an accurate represenation of everyone.
The idealist and incredibly hopeful part of me refuses to believe that a predictably unexciting story of a superstar casually bowling is close second to that of a powerful and true tale of a Pakistani famiy's tragedy and courageous rise against the societal norms of their homeland.
The website snapshot is completely misleading - "hottest topics on the web right now" only means according to their specific gossip site. That does not hold true to the world wide web as a whole. Therefore, this small screen cap cannot represent all of society's priorities and interests. Only those who enter the site specifically to get their fill of celebrity gossip are portrayed in this example, which I believe makes this artifact a faulty one to ask to generate an general consesus on "most people's" concerns.
As comments above mentioned, I'm not sure Kim Kardashian going bowling and the Pakastani article are truly the "hottest topics on the web." However, this caption does reflect our desire to be entertained over learning about important and critical news stories. With the dawn of reality TV shows, celebrity magazines and blogs, there are many sources of news. So, when faced with watching a senate meeting or Jersey Shore, there are plenty of people that would chose the latter. We no longer live in a day where the news was the only thing on TV. Disturbingly, fandom of certain shows, celebrities etc... can replace the importance of the news.
This is very surprising to me that a story titled "Kim Kardashian Goes Bowling" is even on the internet at all. Who cares? I don't know why people read it to the point that it is the number 2 most read article. I think it makes the readers of that gossip site look like they have no life if they're sitting there reading an article about some person doing something that is a normal activity. I do not think people as a whole are more concerned with the lives of celebrities rather than politics, but I would say that to the readers of this website, celebrity happenings are just as important as world politics. I do not think that this is an accurate representation of the general population. Most people who read gossip sites are probably young and most likely female. Other sites are probably more reliable sources for world politics, and I'm sure those sites probably have more hits on the political articles than the gossip articles.
I 100% agree with Fitzwater. I am more surprised that there is an international story on this site because it is supposed to be a celebrity gossip site. I would like to think that people don't really find this kind of topic important, however, I do know some people who read upon celebrities daily (cough, my sister, cough). I believe some people would rather read up on happier topics, like some bimbo going bowling, rather than face the real world, like rape in other countries. We are way too spoiled as a country, but it's only going to get worse.
I find the story about Kim Kardashian very interesting. I personally do not follow her at all, but many of my friends and peers do. What I find most interesting about this though is that a simple and everyday activity that almost all people participate in-bowling-attracts so much attention. I mean I've gone bwoling recently...does that mean that i should get a whole story on me written about? I think there is a fine line between celebrity fame and celeb obsessed. I feel like this is not connected world politics AT ALL. This is not directly important to the world, in fact, I feel like this story id more for enjoyment...not for actual substance articles.
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