I hate a lot of things. Green beans. Tests. Long work meetings. Anything inefficient without purpose. I also hate tabloids. They are the worst type of journalism, though I do not even consider them journalism. They are everything a true journalist would go against. They are lies, rumors, and fabrications. There is no verification. No truth.
So how in the world do they stay afloat in the already suffering business of journalism? Who buys these rags?
Obviously Neil McGinness, new owner of Weekly World News feels it is a worthy investment. His company is revamping the website, www.weeklyworldnews.com, for people who (actually) believe it and those who read it simply for humor, as reported by New York Times.
They have taken tools and programs, such as Photoshop, and utterly abused them. It is not hard to look at the graphics and pictures on their website and tell that Barak Obama is not really holding hands with "Bat Boy" or being supported by earth-visiting aliens. After looking through their website, I became infuriated to see that ABC had advertisements placed in between the garbage of "PALIN POSED WITH ALIEN BEER" and "TINA FEY SHOOTS A BIGFOOT". Seriously?
I think the quote by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel that was passed out by Group 4 in class sums this up completely.
"...Communication and journalism are not interchangeable terms. Anyone can be a journalist. Not everyone is. The decisive factor is not whether they have a press pass; rather, it lies in the nature of the work...'
4 comments:
First off, I absolutely agree with you. Tabloids, in my opinion are a waste of time, money, and anything else that goes into producing them. They do not represent journalism... not even bad journalism. It's pure entertainment (and bad entertainment at that). I'm not sure who buys them, or thinks of the ludicrous stories written, but obviously someone finds it entertaining. Let's just hope that people will be smart enough to not consider it real news.
First off I like how you mentioned work meetings in the same sentence of “things without a purpose” that definitely made me think of weekly RA meetings HA! I would agree though that all those tabloids are pretty darn ridiculous. I never really understood the humor in the insane pictures out outlandish claims. My guess is that maybe it is just a sense of humor that has been lost in out generation. Can anyone really explain it?
I couldn't agree more, I don't understand the people that buy them...
i totally agree. i think that tabloids are the most ridiculous thing ever. but, i have seen people who believe them. maybe it's just because people in Oklahoma can be uncultured swine, but my local grocer tells me that there are several people who buy them RELIGIOUSLY. they truly believe that Elvis is still roamin' around and batboy is best friends with EVERYONE (yeah, i know the stories, who doesn't get bored in the grocery line behind that one lady with three FULL grocery carts? once you've read all of the celebrity magazines [don't get me started on those] you move on to the crappy black and white sensational stories. it happens). so, apparently they're staying afloat somehow.
anyway, i think that they are the lowest of low in writing, and i would be so happy, although really unentertained in the grocery store, if they just dropped off the face of the planet.
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