The line at the end of a trip to the grocery store is a beautiful place for many. Yes, you get to pay for your food and put an end to a long shopping trip, but many also take advantage of the stacks of tabloids lining the magazine shelf. We all are guilty of it at one point or the other. Whether we buy the magazine or not, our attention has been dragged to our favorite celebritie’s new scandal. The drama of the world of press has seemingly taken over news as we know it. Though the creation of tabloid stories have been around since the invention of the printing press, today’s society seems to crave the drama like never before. Celebrities are no longer being awed over due to their great talent, but known of due to their latest and greatest scandal. How much gossip is too much and where do we draw the line between news and tabloid press?
Our eyes may have been able to avoid it in the check out line, but turning on the television or checking your email will soon change that. Even local news stations are now tending to focus on more trash than treasure. Small local drama or court cases have turned into national news, filling channel after channel with pointless social updates. Viewers are not only encouraged to watch these cases or stories, but voice their opinion on them by Tweeting or calling in. Our news broadcasts as a whole now seems to target a much younger audience. The incorporation of pop culture has become more of a standard than an eventful story when it comes to reporting.
Even checking our email becomes a fandom of gossip when you go to log in. Email providers such as yahoo and AOL give suggested stories of incomplete hearsay that they feel you would like to further explore before you even log in. Facebook and twitter are so huge simply because it allows the people to create their own form or tabloid entertainment while playing off of others as well. Gossip is the new truth and drama is the latest and greatest form of entertainment.
It does make you wonder how today’s stars in the world of entertainment function in the spotlight. With paparazzi behind ever corner, their lives are twisted and pinpointed every second of the day. Living in constant scrutiny is not fully living at all. Therefore, we the people have become our own enemy in order to simply seek entertainment.
Hard hitting and informative stories are now rare in comparison to stories relating to our new world of entertainment. We may find viewing a stranger’s gossip to be a fun way to pass the time, but have we taken fun too far?