October 17, 2006
It’s the end of the world as we know it
-- REM
But the thing is, I don’t really feel fine. I love pop culture. The term “pop culture” encompasses a variety of things to me – television, music, movies, books, magazines, trivia, gossip, etc. I read Pink is the New Blog and laugh out loud, I’ll read the cover of US Weekly in line at the grocery store, I’ll watch E! on a lazy Sunday afternoon and I’ll read every page of my Entertainment Weekly. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
All of the sudden while pausing on E! recently I just felt nauseous. I had an overall feeling of doom and dread and hopelessness as I saw yet another Paris Hilton interview. Who IS this girl? An insanely rich heiress that is famous for just being an insanely rich heiress. This is a girl that regularly grabs headlines on CNN.com, y’all. And why? CNN recently ran a bit on their home page about a Britney Spears video that is online where she belches “like a man.” When did this become news? It’s one thing to seek out that kind of information on Eonline.com, but on CNN??
I guess we’ve always been fascinated with celebrities. We’ve created some and torn some down. That will never change. What is concerning to me is the mixing of entertainment and news. There are plenty of stations that proudly call themselves infotainment and that is fine. But seriously, Britney belching like a man on CNN? COME ON.
I went to the Vulcan recently. As we weaved through the exhibit we discussed the video clips of a young Birmingham: images of factory workers, politicians, church leaders, buildings going up, buildings being razed, etc. And my question is, what will the 90’s and 00’s look like to a generation 50 years from now? What will the history reel look like? Would we be proud of ourselves or would we cringe? Are they going to focus on what wars the world was involved in or will they focus on advances in medicine, etc. Will they make us look bad by saying how we all edified the likes of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. 50 years from now will some kid researching the past for a term paper think that our news was soft? Stupid? Entertaining? Will he be able to tell what was news from what was opinion and fluff? Will he know that there was a world before blogs? I wonder about these things.
And in case you’re wondering – yes, I did totally freak out at the top of the Vulcan and refused to walk around. Instead I kept my back pressed up against the side of the elevator both hands gripping the rail and elevator. Sad you say? Sure, but I wasn’t the only one. Sorry Miles. =)
But the thing is, I don’t really feel fine. I love pop culture. The term “pop culture” encompasses a variety of things to me – television, music, movies, books, magazines, trivia, gossip, etc. I read Pink is the New Blog and laugh out loud, I’ll read the cover of US Weekly in line at the grocery store, I’ll watch E! on a lazy Sunday afternoon and I’ll read every page of my Entertainment Weekly. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
All of the sudden while pausing on E! recently I just felt nauseous. I had an overall feeling of doom and dread and hopelessness as I saw yet another Paris Hilton interview. Who IS this girl? An insanely rich heiress that is famous for just being an insanely rich heiress. This is a girl that regularly grabs headlines on CNN.com, y’all. And why? CNN recently ran a bit on their home page about a Britney Spears video that is online where she belches “like a man.” When did this become news? It’s one thing to seek out that kind of information on Eonline.com, but on CNN??
I guess we’ve always been fascinated with celebrities. We’ve created some and torn some down. That will never change. What is concerning to me is the mixing of entertainment and news. There are plenty of stations that proudly call themselves infotainment and that is fine. But seriously, Britney belching like a man on CNN? COME ON.
I went to the Vulcan recently. As we weaved through the exhibit we discussed the video clips of a young Birmingham: images of factory workers, politicians, church leaders, buildings going up, buildings being razed, etc. And my question is, what will the 90’s and 00’s look like to a generation 50 years from now? What will the history reel look like? Would we be proud of ourselves or would we cringe? Are they going to focus on what wars the world was involved in or will they focus on advances in medicine, etc. Will they make us look bad by saying how we all edified the likes of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. 50 years from now will some kid researching the past for a term paper think that our news was soft? Stupid? Entertaining? Will he be able to tell what was news from what was opinion and fluff? Will he know that there was a world before blogs? I wonder about these things.
And in case you’re wondering – yes, I did totally freak out at the top of the Vulcan and refused to walk around. Instead I kept my back pressed up against the side of the elevator both hands gripping the rail and elevator. Sad you say? Sure, but I wasn’t the only one. Sorry Miles. =)
Posted by Amy at 16:54:09 |
