Celebrities, Disasters and Journalism
Somehow we missed this when it was fresh news, but a friend’s recent message about an Anderson Cooper sighting in Port-au-Prince brought it to light. On January 18th, in the “midst of looting chaos”, CNN anchor and reporter Anderson Cooper allegedly saved a Haitian boy who’d been hit by a piece of concrete. The entire sequence was documented by a Getty photographer, and posted on CNN’s website. Cooper is still in Port-au-Prince, a cause celebre among an army of news reporters that have descended on Haiti since the earthquake.
What happens to journalism as it’s meant to be — a public service — when the people who do the reporting and analysis become the subjects of media attention themselves? Journalist and author James Fallows coined the term “celebrity journalism” in 1986, when the phenomenon was nowhere near where it is now, with our open embrace of celebrity spokespeople and the help of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, video blogs, email and more.
Our interest on humanitarian and justice issues has become deeply intertwined with the profile and status of the particular celebrity that NGOs and news networks have placed under the spotlight. This Reuters poll from 2008 is very revealing, but what it says about the news industry and its audience is unfortunate, and not a big surprise.
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Amazing article. Bookmarked it already. have a nice day, Joe Smith.