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I understand that the mainstream media is supposed to tell the news like it is to give you an incite into the world that you wouldn't already have, usually choosing to do this using over exaggerated headlines and eye catching gossip style stories to draw in readers and make money. I have had the thought for a while now, but recently it feels like their 'news stories' are turning into more victimisation of certain individuals (usually celebrities) rather than 'actual news' and there seems to be a whole lot of blowing things way out of proportion to further dramaticise and scrutinise every little detail of somebodies life to tempted people into buying and reading their material,
I find it really sad that the media has created this constant pressure for a lot of people, young and old, especially vulnerably insecure young teens, to live up to an impossible 'perfect ideal' of photo-shopped celebrities just to sell more copies of a magazine or make your clothes line look better for example. This feels like taking advantage of the insecurities of people, who probably already have enough to worry about considering that it is human nature to scrutinise yourself for all of your little imperfections, but this further makes you begin to think that you're not 'normal' or 'perfect' by comparing yourself to this flawless and fake image which you are led to believe is how everyone should look. We are constantly told by our peers that everyone is beautiful, everyone will have a different opinion on what they believe to be perfect and personality far outweighs the way that you look, but then this conflicts with the media's apparent view that 'perfect' is skinny, tall, perfect make up, clear skin etc.. Especially recently, there always seems to be so much emphasis on turning even the positives of someone's life into negatives too, as well as focusing on image, money and possessions rather than celebrating the positive news or success of individuals. This may be down to the fact that people are more attracted into reading negative news, maybe everyone just loves a juicy gossip scandal or maybe it's just jealousy of someone's success which makes people want to bring others down to make themselves feel more normal.
I understand that being a celebrity comes with the baggage of being constantly in the limelight and exposed for all to see, but I also think that there is certain boundaries that you should have the decency to respect as well. Sometimes you get the feeling that the media don't really think about, or in some cases even care about the consequences that they could have on somebodies life by publishing a revealing or negative story about them, as long as it draws in readers and makes them money. I don't understand how you can lack the moral to potentially ruin somebodies career, reputation or even life in order to further your own career, make you feel better about yourself or purely for the entertainment of others, all of which are pretty unacceptable excuses in my opinion.
These celebrities are built up by the media as these perfect role models, which must come with such a pressure, since just one 'slip up' or little scandal/flaw and they seem to just turn against celebrities and leave them feeling exposed, making them into the villains for something that they didn't even do wrong. Its also kinda sad that lot of people seem to jump on the bandwagon of the majority rather than following their own views or beliefs in fear of going against the norm and standing out and for a feeling of fitting in with everyone else, leading to a group victimising mentality against an individual, usually through the medium of social media, which is practically like online bullying, even big celebrities have feelings and can be affected by comments on the internet.
Don't get me wrong, I do actually enjoy reading newspapers and magazines, plus I understand that this isn't the case all of the time and it's not all mainstream media that do it but it is just a small portion of stories has been bothering me, especially this week and something that I have been wanting to get off of my chest. Obviously this is all completely my views and opinions but I would love to hear your views on the situation!
Just to finish on a positive, there was a really good post on Hannah Delacour's blog about Self confidence and appearance in blogging (which you should totally go read) and there was one quote which really stood out to me and changed my perception of looks and body image: 'If you think about it, our bodies and our face are mearly a material means of exploring and interacting with the world around us, they don't define us, we do - the part that makes us.'. Don't let the media make you doubt your self worth or tell you that you're not perfect, try to stop worrying about dedicating your life to becoming this perfect ideal that doesn't even really exist, embrace your imperfections, your weirdness and your uniqueness, things that define you and make you stand out from everyone else an worry about doing things that make you happy rather than pleasing everybody else!
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