Media, Culture and Society

The Corruption of Democracy

The Tabloidization Debate ' centers around a democratic society 's need for honest and substantial information receive via journalistic sources . America has sought to protect freedom of speech from the days of its inception in an effort to keep democracy in place by providing its citizens with the right to voice opinions and receive relatively real and uncensored news . There are a growing number of experts however , who believe that journalism is being undermined by the cult of celebrity ' Today 's journalism is inundated with celebrity stories Many

persons , such as Todd Gitlin , believe that this promotes a type of vicarious living on the part of the consumers and substitutes this for the actual social interaction which is the cornerstone of democracy Others claim that this type of journalism even serves to dumb down America 's culture . Nevertheless , not all sides agree that the cult of celebrity is an entirely negative force . Bird believes that this type of journalism is merely dramatizing morality . If this is true , it would actually provide a positive benefit for American culture . According to his ideas , celebrities are seen as moral representatives of the culture By observing and critiquing the lives of celebrities , citizens actually participate in an examination of their society 's moral code . This could benefit democracy simply as serving as a means of social participation in the creation of social values . The cult of celebrity in this view shows this type of journalism as something that actually supports the democratic process . Historically though , journalism has been an outlet for the free exchange of ideas . When these ideas do not have an actual social significance or merely consist of useless trivia , the foundation of a democratic society may actually be eroding . Also , much of

today 's journalism is now driven by public relations . In fact , as much as 50 of current news

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content is generated by the public relations sector . This means that the news that is being consumed may very well not be news at all . Much of what may be seen as news could actually be manufactured public opinion which serves the organizations which create the news . The consequence of this is that the free exchange of ideas which is the hallmark of democracy is actually being manipulated . News organizations whose parent companies have interests in certain industry 's or politicians can generate seemingly unbiased news which supports their agendas . The jury is still out as to whether this is having detrimental effects on democracy , but it would appear that the substance of American news is , at best , being either diluted or distorted

The Privilege of Knowing

Turner suggests that the media prefers the personal and private (privileged object of revelation . This preference can be observed in two articles regarding Katie Holmes and her troubled relations with Tom Cruise . In the stories written in Cosmopolitan , the photographic images consistently align themselves with Turner 's theories . He claims that the media often does this by displaying stolen images...