Celebrity Gossip and News Scandals and Its Influence on Society

Nowadays, people feel the need to read more about celebrities’ lives and scandal news than any other form of news or entertainment such as books or other healthy habits. Therefore, the media today provides much more information about famous people’s private lives then it did in the past and many times these news cover other worth reading subjects. Celebrity gossip and news scandals not only that took over the first pages of the newspapers, but it also took over the internet and the TV news. Most of the reality shows these days are based on famous people and their private lives and there are no boundaries for that. This can only be a bad influence on our today’s society as it provides bad examples for people.

First of all, so much attention for the celebrities and their scandals creates false ideas about society, especially for young people. It gives bad examples on how to live their lives, and it also gives them a false impression about what money means and it leads to unnecessary and unhealthy mindsets because celebrities spend great amounts of money that they don’ have to count while most of the normal people probably have to. Celebrity journalism also creates false role models for people, more exactly for the kids who absorb and follow the acts that they see on social media, not knowing if it is bad or good. Not all the celebrity nowadays behave appropriately despite the attention that is pointed towards them. For instance, let’s take the example of the Kardashian/ Jenner family and their way of life. Their luxurious houses, vacations, closets, cars, and the list can go on, all presented in a very known reality show for people to watch. All creating a false impression of how easy life can be when you have money and you are also famous. But then are the scandals, famous scandals not only from the recent years, such as divorces for example between Prince Charles and Princess Diana, Brad Pitt and Jenifer Aniston, a few years later, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Kim Kardashian sex-tapes, Mel Gibson and R Kelly’s arrests, the partying lifestyle of Paris Hilton are just a few examples of how the attention given to the celebrities brings bad examples for the audience, especially when parties in the celebrity industry often involve drugs and huge amounts of alcohol. Moreover, deaths of the celebrities, so much discussed and investigated on TV and social media, often leads at suicides among stars’ fans. For example, according to The Sun News, twelve of Michael Jackson’s fans committed suicide after his death including the creator of the biggest fan page of the artists’ who wrote on the online world before his death that he “can not cope with the singer’s death”.

On the other hand, people might argue that celebrity gossip is not bad, that it makes people feel good about themselves seeing how worst famous people came become is they have too much celebrity they can’t handle. Sites like TMZ.com or Perezhilton.com have no boundaries and they upload any news they can get, in order for people to read. Most of these are just crude and vulgar but people still access these websites, and why is that? Maybe because people enjoy this kind of entertainment even it is something completely unnecessary to their lives. It is also true that this kind of blogs, reality shows, and scandal news are made to inform people and they need to decide after if these are good or bad examples that they want to follow or not.

Second of all, another negative impact that celebrity gossip and scandal news have on our society is the great amount of time that people spend reading this kind of news that doesn’t bring anything valorous to their lives nor fill their minds with unnecessary information that eventually will be forgotten.

Social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TV Shows like “Keeping up with the Kardashians”, online platforms that promote celebrity gossip are the reason why the media focuses so much on celebrity’s lives instead of important national or international news, political news, health importance and many other subjects that are often left aside when a big scandal shows up. There is no question that because of that people tend to overlook the important information that they might need in their lives. In the USA for example, according to Rasmussen Reports a national telephone survey in 2013 revealed that 81% of the Americans admit that people spend too much time reading scandal news and gossips rather than actual news that would have an actual and important impact on their lives. Moreover, according to an article published by BBC with an interview with Doctor Zara Aziz, “Famous can shape people’s health choices and what they worry about in unexpected ways”, says the doctor. For example, Angelina Jolie’s decision to proceed a double mastectomy in order to protect her from eventually diseases such as ovarian or breast cancer had “a significant effect on people’s decisions, worries, and behavior”.

Thirdly, so much attention being focused on celebrities also affects their lives. They need to spend their whole private lives in front of the public because the scandal press is always ready to write an article on everything that famous people do, how they live, what they eat, what relationships they have, with who, how they party, where they go. And this also leads to scandals that do not have a base, that is mistaken because photos are not always what they seem and because famous people as any others have rights to privacy that are not being respected. While some celebrities like the attention given by the press, not all are enjoying living their lives in the spotlight and having every move followed by journalists or stalkers. “People” magazine revealed shocking interviews with artists that “will make you never want to be famous”. The model Gigi Hadid revealed that “I’ve lost a lot of friends because I’ll get busy for a short period of time and they’re not reaching out”. The singer Lady Gaga also admitted “As soon as I go out into the world, I belong to everyone else” and added, “ It’s legal to follow me, it’s legal to stalk me at the beach, I can’t call the police or ask them to leave.” Another example of this kind is the actor George Clooney who says “You can’t enjoy simple pleasures”, “There are restrictions to this kind of fame. I haven’t walked in Central Park for 15 years. I’d like to, you know?”. So if you think being a star is easy, try to consider these examples and how would you feel if being in their spot. Of course there countless advantages coming with the life of a celebrity but people so addicted to scandal press and celebrity gossip should at least once try to consider that celebrities are humans too and they deserve privacy as any other person.

In conclusion, celebrity gossip and news scandals took over the Internet, the TV shows, the news, even the front page of newspapers. The impact of the media focusing too much attention on celebrities’ lives has a bad impact of normal people presenting them false ideas about life, society and creating bad role models, especially for the young people. Moreover, not all the celebrities want the light of the spotlight because they feel the need to have a private life and so, the media affects also their lives by banding them from simple pleasures of life and the right of privacy.