Celebrity journalism isthe news about celebrities in the limelight for the advertorial and industry promotionalfeature article. The means of this spotlight of the celebrities is differentfrom the ends. The standard upon which the society is modeled is mainlyreflected from this celebrity journalism, where the lifestyles of thecelebrities are projected onto the society.
There are certain positive trendstoo in the hot air of celebrity journalism. The campaigns, the supporters ofsocial causes all add to the social growth and construction of the well-beingof the society.KEYWORDS: Celebrity Journalism, Social construction,responsibility factor. Newsfeed, notifications, Whatsapp updates, Tweets, Instaposts – these minisculeentities, suffocate our mental spaces with news that are needed and sometimes unwanted.The curiosity to know new things have turned out to be the act of scrolling upand down which results in thumb cramps and eye redness and eventually screenfatigue. In the recent times, news is found everywhere. Once journalism, whichwas a separate mainstream service to mankind, has now become a street afterstreet machinery engineering nonsense as news in channel A, channel B, channelC and channel D forgetting the social responsibility that their pen andmicrophone hold.
The news is plenty and the news channels and papers spread acontagious hype and sensation about the topic that trends or in socialnetworking jargon, goes “viral.” The hype of the issue gets subdued, mediaforgets about the scam, murder, assault or charge sheet and they hunt for newsensational hype. This is where the lacunae in the social responsibility ofjournalism and media is foul played. In spite of this cynical complaints thereare exceptions in the field of journalism, who strictly adhere to the ethics ofjournalism, who are eventually blacked out by the ruling government, when thegovernment gets annoyed. They curb the freedom of expression be it a biggestmedia in the Delhi box office or Chennai box office or it can be any regionalbox office. Journalism is the activity ofgathering news about people and events in an unbiased manner. The latter partof the definition, is in precarious situation, especially in the contemporaryfield of journalism, because of the widespread corruption in the nation.
Theother reason is because the media, newspaper and news channels are stronglyindependent to the naked eyes, but what they actually do between the lines iseither favoring the saffron or opposing the red. When the nation’s journalismis working only for the TRP’s then the decay of it is incredibly in themajority. The difference between the paid news and the unpaid news is anothermajor challenge of our times. The penthat should be independent is now curbed by the government preventing its free expression of speech and writing. Thefield of journalism is also now becoming a corporate endeavor. The one aspectof making the enterprise of journalism service as a corporate sector is theintervention of the celebrity journalism as a mainstream subject in both printand media journalism. This celebrity journalism which is an essence ofadvertorial entertainment industry, features promotional articles which aregiven as the main newspaper supplements for the newspapers that are India’sleading No.1.
Someof the news in the advertorial regarding the celebrities in recent times are asfollows. The following examples are taken from one of India’s leading Newspapers.Example: 1, Jai next tohave three heroines. Actor Jai who is awaiting the release of his upcomingfilm, Balloon, has signed his next. Director Suresh of Eththan fame will be directing this one. (TOI)Example: 2, I will notconvert nor change my name…, says TV anchor Manimegalai, who recently cameunder a lot of criticism on social media for getting married outside herreligion.
“I have always had my way ever since I was a child. Parents havegiven me everything I needed and supported in all my endeavors. But my fatherdidn’t approve of Hussain. (TOI)Example: 3, Sourcesconfirm Virat-Anushka Wedding! The couple will tie the knot in Italy, but hasbooked a five-star hotel for their reception on December 21 in Mumbai.
Rumoursof Virat Kohli one of India’s most eligible bachelors, tying the knot withBollywood’s sweetheart Anushka Sharma has turned out to be true!(TOI)From these three examples we candecipher the long hidden fact that the public is kept passive in a massdelusion of aesthetics which is the virtual reality. The opium that has been fedin the form of cinema, cricket and other stuffs that make an ordinary person felllike a celebrity in the limelight cannot be rehabilitated as quickly as we scheduleour antidote. Rather the delusory factor can be made favouring the growth ofthe society in miniscule entities in the same way that celebrity journalismworks. These three examples which represent the industry promotional featurearticle reveals three major impact factors on the society. They are thecommercial element of promoting the upcoming films, the unwanted privateaffairs of the celebrity and the trend that is being set as a result of thesekinds of news.
