I started doing some research on which stories were garnering the most attention on Google News. I was actually surprised to see that the Norway Bombings were getting more attention than the death of Amy Winehouse. Below are the two screenshots of the results
As you can see Norway is getting more coverage than Amy Winehouse. This finding lead me to post on Twitter. This is what I posted:
“I’m glad to see that there are more News Stories regarding Norway than Amy Winehouse. Both are tragic, but Norway has more implications.” Grant Brunner and myself regarding which was actually had more implications. The following is a result of that exchange.
To start off, I do not watch a whole lot of television. I choose to spend my time either playing video games, listening to audiobooks, listening to podcasts or programming in Objective-C or HTML/CSS/PHP. I do watch some television, but it is almost entirely while I am eating dinner. The list of shows that I do watch are: House Hunters, House Hunters International, Next Design Star, Project Runway, House (sometimes), Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant. Four of those are mostly because my Fiance wants to watch them. There is a pattern in which shows I watch, most of them can be categorized as ‘Reality TV’. Truthfully, they are all Reality TV (excluding House).
I have two categories for ‘Reality TV’. I have Informational Reality TV and True Reality TV. The Informational Reality TV shows would be House Hunters, House Hunters International, Next Design Star, and Project Runway. The True Reality TV shows would be Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant. House is just entertainment. I generally do not like True Reality TV shows because they serve no purpose, most of the time, to Society at large. Where as Information Reality TV can be educational as well as entertaining.
True Reality TV is a complete waste of ‘Air time’. I feel as though all of these shows should be taken off the air. These types of shows would include, ‘Jersey Shore’, ‘Survivor’, ‘Fear Factor’, ‘The Simple Life’, ‘I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here’, ‘Big Brother’, and ‘Real World’. These shows have no actual purpose other than perpetuating the idea of ‘Celebrity’.
Celebrities are idolized by a majority of the population. In the group I call ‘Celebrities’ includes Musicians (‘Rock Stars’), Actors and Actresses, Baseball Players, Basketball Players, and those who have household names but have not real reason for being considered famous. I do not include each individual within each of these over-arching groups, but the subset that brings down the ideal Model of each category.
For instance, in Baseball Roger Clemens is considered a ‘Celebrity’, while somebody like Frank Thomas or Nolan Ryan would not be considered so. Lance Armstrong would be considered a Celebrity for doping and bring down the ideal that the Cycling community is trying to portray. There are many actors and actresses that do not fit into the category of ‘Celebrity’, but there a ton who epitomize the term ‘Celebrity’.
There are those in society who are truly trying to do well and just get caught up in being a ‘Celebrity’ and begin to go down the wrong path. Ultimately, these people hit their low point and come out a better person on the other side and can become a spokesperson for their industry. The primary example I am thinking of is Rob Lowe. If you have not read his book ‘Stories I Only Tell my Friends’, go and buy the Hardcover, Kindle Edition, Audible Version or Nook Version and read it.
The problem with ‘Celebrity’, and the idolization of, is that members of Society truly believe that they can become a Celebrity. They do not just want to be famous but they want to the spotlight to always be on them and never stray away. They want to have everybody talking about them. They do not care if it is positive things that are being said or negative, to them they cannot differentiate between the two. The issue with this view is that the news tends to only report the negative things regarding a specific celebrity. And because of this type of reporting, some rather impressionable individuals believe that this is the path towards becoming a famous person.
Many of the negative reports are when ‘Celebrities’ are arrested for possession of marijuana, cocaine, extacy, prescriptions drugs or some other substance. These impressionable people take this to be ‘acceptable behavior’ and mimic this type of behavior in hopes to become a household name. This is the root issue.
Amy Winehouse died yesterday, July 23rd, 2011. She died at the age of 27. She joins a group of individuals known as the ’27Club’. These are musical talents who have died at the age of 27. These include Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, Kurt Cobain and Janis Joplin. She will now always be remembered as somebody who had difficulties with drugs and alcohol and will forever be a ‘Celebrity’. As of this writing, there is no official cause of death; however, many speculate that drugs and alcohol may be the cause.
During our brief exchange Grant pointed out that Addiction and Depression affect more people than terrorism. This is true, and addiction and Celebrity are not mutually exclusive, but they are not mutually required either. The issue of addiction is considered ‘taboo’ by many people. Many people refuse to see that they have a problem despite everyone around them knowing this to be a fact. There are some very simple ways to combat and fix this taboo.
The first fix starts with Hollywood. Hollywood needs to reign in their Actors and Actresses. Hollywood should begin shunning, and not providing work, to Actors and Actresses who do not exemplify the behaviors that are conducive of a representative of the Film Industry. Is it really hard for the Screen Actors Guild to say ‘No, we are not going to allow you to be part of our membership because you are an addict.’? SAG should start requiring drug testing of all of their Actors and Actresses. If they test positive, they are not allowed to act until they can prove that they are sober and have been sober for a significant amount of time. If this were to occur, the amount of drug and alcohol abuse in Hollywood would go down significantly. This would have to go beyond SAG, but also include the Agents, Directors, Producers, and Studios. They would be required to put it in contracts that if an Actor or Actress fails a drug test, they do not get paid for that role. The same should go for every Hollywood employee from the lowliest Grip to the most famous director. Nobody should be excluded.
The Recording Industry is not exempt from this either. Every musician should be required to pass a drug test before being allowed to record a track and should be randomly tested throughout the entire recording process. When a musician goes on tour they should also be required to pass drug screenings along the tour. There should be severe consequences for not passing a drug test. It may be that the musician does not get paid for the entire tour, or a significant cut in pay.
Sports should be the exact same way. Players should be cut from teams, not allowed to play, and not be eligible for free-agent status until they are sober. These funds from the wage cuts, and withholdings in pay from offenders could go towards helping others in their industry become sober and a valuable member of the community.
All of these methods would allow for a better representation of their respective industries and might sway some impressionable individuals from believing that by doing bad behavior they can become a ‘Celebrity’. It may not come easily, and it may just be a pipe dream, but if these are not implemented it could become a significant slippery slope for future individuals who wish to become ‘Celebrities’. It may come to a point where those who need to be helped cannot be helped due to Society believing that it is acceptable to be an addict and not forcing individuals to get the help that they desperately need.
