Britney Spears
The one and only.
We know her well, we refer to her as simply "Britney." You and I both know she has been on the charts since she was 16, she's been married twice, her recent ex is "KFed," she has two sons, she shaved her head last year, has had multiple stunts in rehab, screwed up at the VMAs last year, and is a billionaire.
Why do you and I both know this much off the top of our heads? Why do we care?
Well, if you look at Communication Theories there can be a number of reasons why so many people are interested in the life of Britney Spears. In class today we talked about how many consumers of media (basically, everyone you and I know) use media in several ways. According to McQuail, Blumler, and Brown (1972) you and I both pay attention to Britney because of Diversion, Personal Relationships, Personal/Identinty/Individual Psychology, and Surveillance. Basically, Britney's life is an outlet for us. We seek out information on her because it fulfills some sort of need.
Really? Are the problems in my life so easy to escape from that all I have to do is turn on the radio, listen to Britney's issues, and I can feel all better? I'm sorry, but when it comes to Britney, I highly doubt it.
In my opinion (which many of you know I have a few of them), I think that the government is pushing Britney Spears in the media so that less attention is focused on them. I mean, seriously, I know more about Britney Spears in the last five years then I know about what is going on in Iraq. That is pathetic. As we talked about in class, sure, I can go and find all the information I want about Iraq if I put the time and energy into it...but the main news sources should be providing me with this information, instead of wasting their time showing off how pathetic this rich pop star is.
Now, I know this whole government conspiracy thing sounds crazy. And heck, maybe I am. But the fact that we keep getting Spears' personal life shoved down our throats is sickening. And what is even more sickening, the general public is eating it up. Everyone loves talking about Britney's newest scam, but nobody wants to talk about Iraq. Everybody loves when shows are dedicated to exposing Britney to the fullest, yet dislike documentaries on Iraq. So the media (or the government, in my opinion) is pushing all of this b.s. in front of our faces, and we love it more then the information that will be helpful in deciding our next president.
This is such a huge issue, one blog cannot cover it. I am greatful that I am able to challenge the views around me instead of just accepting them. But it saddens me that so many of my friends, family, and community are unable to do the same. They just accept that Britney is an important subject of conversation, and leave it at that. And as we discussed in class, even though I think I am somehow "above" the impact of Britney Spears from the media, I am not: EVERYONE is affected by it. The media system in the United States needs to change in order for our communities to be educated and involved in the affairs of the world.
The more we let people tell us what to know, think, and talk about, the less we are able to know, think and talk about.
1 comment:
i agree with most of what you're saying, however they did cover the war in Iraq for a very long time when it began how long ago, people got borred, they stopped tuning in and began reading other material so the media had to change what they were doing to attract the viewers, its all about money, money makes the world go round and as stupid as people are for being entertained by the rediculous life of britany, we have to watch as the one hope we had gets drained of power, our education, education is the single most powerful, important peice of our culture and now our government is pulling funding. what does this do along with the new technological advances, well, what does the video game pac man teach you, well nothing, so what would someone be if all they did was play pac man, well they'd be stupid, therefor our government is maybe not forcing it on us but definately allowing this stupidity to saturate our society like an unstoppable rebbel force. The affects of this are to deep for us to even imagine. but they are there underneath everything, creating a very one framed stupid American. please watch the show "I know my kids a superstar". This will give you a small taste of what our world is rappidly turning into. let me tell you a quote that a caught just skimming through channels, "Mommy, i don't care if im comfortable, i just want to be rich and famous". This was a 10 yr old girl, and the mom welcomed this by patting her on the back. I almost went and got my dads gone to blow my head off. it was that sad. and this is on national television.
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