The News of the World as soap opera (2)

In my post 'The News of the World as soap opera' I argued that the popular press' focus on feeding our baser selves with a daily diet of reality, action, sex, violence and the trivial has led, in time, to the creation of an ongoing reality celebrity soap opera which forms the substance of the redtops, celebrity mags, reality TV, and online chats/tweets encompassing as it does the 'who has been seen where', 'who is with who', 'who has broken up with who', 'who has attacked who', and 'who has cracked up and/or rehabilitated' of the real (and, sometimes, manufactured for money) lives of celebrities, entertainers, politicians, sportstars and victims of serious crime. For this reason I suggested that Hackgate, rather than diminishing in any way this celebrity reality soap opera, will only feed it as its participants become part of the story.

In today's Guardian, John Kampfner also argues that Hackgate won't drain the trivia out of everyday life:

"As the old saying goes, you get the journalists, the MPs and the coppers you deserve. How many people were complaining about greed when bankers, BBC executives and many others in private and public life were lining their pockets? How many people were indulging in celebrity pap, enjoying the gossip being fed to them at the expense of serious news? Far more than a healthy society would admit.

Why did newspapers plunge towards the lowest common denominator? Because their product sold in a difficult market, and still does. How would the tabloids fare if they put the latest massacre in Syria on their front pages? The redtops are not exclusively to blame. Rarely does a so-called serious paper miss the opportunity to follow up on a celebrity story, sprinkling their reports with irony to help their more knowing readers digest more comfortably. I read them as assiduously as the next person ...

Over the past two decades some people did complain about iniquities in society; some journalists investigated wrongdoing. But far from finding out too much, unearthing corruption and assorted wrongdoing, our media is far too pliant. And the readers, it seems, were not that fussed either, at least while the going was good, while consumerism anaesthetised the brain ...

... the financial crisis, MPs' expenses or phone-hacking and the Murdochs? Each of these scandals attests to the corrosion of the public realm. None of these scandals can satisfactorily be addressed by themselves. They grew out of the same root.

Seriousness needs to be pursued and protected. It cannot be magicked into life by august committees, as each crisis unfolds in our public life. It ultimately comes down to our own individual choices and priorities."

If we feed ourselves a diet that is shallow, superficial and self-centred, we should not be surprised when society becomes ...

Hello! We are the shallow people,
reflections of our fitness ratings,
shining the surface of our existence,
selling our lives to seek significance.

OK! we are on heat, on fire,
hyper cool, yet full of desire.
Bad and wicked are terms of approval.
Bums and tums are there for removal.

Ultra-slim celebs shed baby weight,
the best bikini bodies we celebrate;
airbrushing or anorexic,
eating disorders are so photographic.

Narcissus is our role model;
made in Chelsea , such a fit young man,
lightly tanned and with a wicked four pack,
we know that he is Essex!

We are pissed off, falling over,
stumbling in the dark.
Drunk on celebrity chardonnay,
technology sated, intoxicated.

We think we are such foxy ladies
sexy, sultry sods.
We are hung over, hearing voices,
kissing the porcelain god.

We are off our heads,
out of our skulls,
out of our minds,
we decline.

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The Kinks - Dedicated Follower Of Fashion.