Do the media pay too much attention to celebrities’ personal lives?

When you go into any reasonably-sized newsagents, you will see a large range of colourful, glossy magazines. Some of these are devoted to specialist interests, such as computers, food, photography and so on, but a good many of them carry articles on celebrities, and some of the magazines are devoted entirely to stories about celebrities.

Tabloid newspapers also carry a great many articles about celebrities. Indeed, some of them often feature stories about celebrities on the front page, whereas major news stories, which properly belong on the front page, are put in a much less prominent place. Even some of the broadsheets feature articles on particularly well-known celebrities when, a few years ago, such articles would not have been considered important enough to warrant a place in a serious newspaper.

Television also now features several programmes on the lives of celebrities on its many channels. Even national news programmes sometimes feature items about celebrities.

There are far more so-called celebrities nowadays than there ever were. A few years ago, someone had to be really famous to a large number of people before they were regarded as celebrities. Now a whole range of people, such as pop stars, film actors, fashion models and footballers, are regarded as celebrities. There is no shortage of material for the media. Some of these celebrities complain about the intrusion of the press in their lives. However, there would be one thing worse than this for celebrities-lack of attention.

Do our media pay too much attention to the lives of these so- called celebrities? Well, I certainly think so, especially when many of them are minor celebrities to say the least. Often, they are not famous because they have done particularly well in their area of work. Some of them are famous simply because they deliberately set out to attract media attention by their outrageous clothes or behaviour. That appears to be enough to make them famous, although often their fame does not last very long.

I am sure that a great many people, like myself, are not at all interested in the goings-on of these celebrities. Many of us have never heard of a lot of them. This being the case, should the media stop paying them so much attention?

Again, I think so, but a lot of people obviously do not agree with me. The media only publish things that the general public wants to see or hear. If the public did not buy the newspapers or watch the TV programmes featuring the celebrities, such articles or presentations would be dropped. This is certainly not happening.

Indeed, more and more articles are being published and new magazines featuring celebrities continue to hit the newsagents’ stands. The public appetite for articles about the lives of celebrities seems insatiable and, as long as these articles are selling newspapers and magazines, editors will go on publishing them.

Editors know that a single article giving some juicy information about certain celebrities will sell hundreds more copies of their papers than usual. When Princess Diana was alive, editors around the world regularly featured articles and photographs of her on the slightest excuse, knowing that the very sight of her would have a huge effect on sales.

Few celebrities have anything like the appeal of Princess Diana, but there are still enough of them around to sell a considerable number of newspapers. I am surprised by their appeal, but I am obviously in the minority.