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Celebrity Culture

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Celebrity Culture Has Taken Over Our Lives with Reality Television, YouTube and Social Media
Michael Van Gaasbeck
Excelsior College

Celebrity Culture Has Taken Over Our Lives with Reality Television, YouTube and Social Media The top news of the day no longer involves wars, government issues or natural disasters. More often then not when you sign onto the internet, your home page is filled with celebrity gossip or the latest viral video of someone’s pet doing something funny. Whether you like it or not the celebrity culture has consumed our lives. We buy things because someone famous told us to, we watch something because the hottest stars are in it, and we cant wait to hear about the latest celebrity separation or legal battle. Does that make us bad people? Of course not. The news of today is much different then in times past. News channels rely on viewers to keep them in business and they battle to be the first one with the breaking story. News today is instant, we no longer read about yesterdays events when we grab the newspaper off the driveway. Millions and millions of dollars are spent to figure out what we want to hear about and news channels must continue to feed our need in order to survive. Scientists say that humans are hardwired to be fascinated with celebrity, and familiar faces create pleasurable chemical stimuli in our brains. The news companies realize this and celebrity journalism has taken over. A study from Halls Reports showed that from 1980 to 2003 the percentage of pages in news magazines dedicated to celebrities has doubled, while over that same period the percentage of coverage dedicated to national affairs dropped from 35 percent of all pages to 25 percent. There are arguments on both sides as to whether this has helped or hurt our society. But love it or hate it celebrity culture is big business and is here to stay.

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