FULLY BOOKED On the Media: Is the age of celebrity-obsessed media coming to an end?
"Celebrities" have dominated news culture in the last decade and become a mini publishing industry all of their own. From the continuing popularity of reality television and magazines like Heat, real-life showbiz characters have come to dominate the popular press and broadcast schedules.
But could all this coming to an end? Joining us for an On the Media talk about the media's relationship with fame, are comedian and journalist Jane Bussman - author of The Worst Date Ever; Popbitch founder Camilla Wright; Heat magazine editor and broadcaster Sam Delaney and Sharon Hatt, celebrity liaison at the National Autistic Society.
The debate will be chaired by Robin Morgan, journalist and former editor of the Sunday Times magazine.
Tags for this entry: celebrity, media relationships
I have to say how dissapointed I was with the majority of the panel selected for this talk.
A woman who was more concerned with cracking jokes and getting a laugh than discussing the issues, a former Times journalist who claimed to be a rebel but was dressed in head to toe corduroy and loved the sound of his own voice and would not let anyone else have a go, a charity PR person who was agreeing with the 'well known and accompplished' panelists instead of standing up for herself.
The staff holding the microphones failed to explain the evening was being filmed and although we could not hear ourselves when speaking into the mics, they would enable our voices to be heard in the video. There was no mediator, it was really a waste of time and I felt bad for the genuinely interesting and sincere panelists such as Sam Delaney and especially Camilla Wright who was spontaneous and no nonsense (no agenda either like the rest of them).
The point most of the audience were trying to make but ridiculed by Jane and talked over by Robin Morgan has been highlighted for us in the Lohan child trafficking documentary which aired last week on the BBC.
We were trying to tell these people on the panel that actually because of the work they do (or did) they have contributed to what they were said to be 'rebelling against'as Morgan put it...celebrity culture is sick... reflected by the obvious moral failure that it's worth anatomising the wrongheaded decisions that led to such a flawed idea being aired (ie. Lohan fiasco) - and wondering if they are not symptomatic of a wider cultural malaise.
We are all responsible, but that the journalists on the panel chose to talk themselves up and tale tell rather than discuss the issues just goes to show they are as egomaniacal as these celebrities are, so what's the point?
Patricia Lima
Head of PR ActionAid