Radó Bettina - Setting an example

Nowadays, privacy is practically nonexistent, especially for those who work in show business. The film industry is the main employer of celebrities who are now a part of average people’s lives. One can read, hear, or even write about their adored icons in all kinds of media: television, radio, magazines, online surfaces, and so on. However, the media mainly concerns itself with their scandals, instead of focusing on creating role-models for people.

The leading sources of these news and articles about celebrities have been for a number of decades the tabloid magazines, which are widely popular in every country of the world. According to a study written by Sofia Johansson on British papers: “The Sun, the Daily Mirror and the Daily Star constitute the third and most down-market group, the popular tabloids. Sometimes called the red-tops due to the colour of their masthead, they operate in a mass market, with combined readerships of 15,238 million and with less than 13 per cent of readers in the AB social grades.” (2007).

It is obvious from all this that the media’s influence is indisputable. However, this power is not always in the right hands. Such is the case with numerous tabloids, but some affect audiences more than others; for example, the British Sun+ has recently released an article with the title: “Will rape claims destroy America’s national treasure? – Pressure mounts on Bill Cosby”. Pieces like this attract a wide range of readers, in this case even more so, since the topic is international. This is how the reach of tabloids grow, even when the pieces in them have nothing more to say than what was already summed up in their titles. Most of the time they lack intellectuality, useful information, and positivity, yet the reign of such magazines is indisputable.

This is an example of how the media can damage anyone’s public image with a single piece of writing. Meanwhile, acts of charity and heroism are quite rarely advertised on the front pages of tabloids. One would have to read through the whole magazine to find an article like that, for instance, in the latest issue of the Hungarian JOY there was a two-page writing: “Be like Angelina Jolie!” (Translation by: Bettina Radó). This was almost in the middle of the 194 pages long magazine, starting on page 80, despite the fact that the topic is charity and volunteering, which should be popularized in every way possible.

All in all, while tabloids put negative examples forward, it should not be forgotten that there are some better role-models for people to look up to. A lot of celebrities, like Angelina Jolie, are worth reading about and the media should not guide people’s attention towards scandals, and meaningless news.

References:

1.      Johansson, S. (2007). Reading Tabloids: tabloid newspapers and their readers (pp. 24.). Södertörns Högskola. (Retrieved from: www.diva-portal.org 18-10-2014)

2.      The Sun (2014). Will rape claims destroy America’s national treasure? (Retrieved from: www.thesun.co.uk 18-10-2014)

3.      Nagy, B. (2014). Legyél te is Angelina Jolie! (pp. 80-82). Joy (V. XVII., Nr. 12.)