This article reminded me of a conversation ( a very short one) from about 8 or 9 years ago… I was in NY ( after just spending three weeks in the still-ongoing , yet winding down , sectarian wars of Iraq) trying to cover a UNSC session about Kosovo. In the UN media quarters, I ran into Kurt from Reuters, whom I knew from the times when he was covering the War here, and Jackie from the BBC- who was in the States doing the same thing that I was… So, we decided to go out for drinks later on- once the first round of report was sent out and before ( due to the time differences) we start working on the second and third rounds…
Somehow, by the time we met up in this journalistic watering hole in Soho, the three of us got joined by a couple from one of the French media-houses ( either RFI or France24- I can not remember exactly) and this 20+ woman in loud clothes and too much make up … At first no one paid too much attention to her, but, after she used every chance she had to say “we”..”us journalists”… and stuff like that, Kurt finally decided to throw her a bone and asked “what do you mean by — we?” -Who do you work for, and what do you do?”
“Well-” she started replying happy that someone took notice “I work for the TMZ ( I think it was TMZ, or it might have been another celebrity-media outlet) -I am a journalist, like you guys”…
That was when Jackie showed a bit of interest and joined the conversation
“You mean, you write about celebs , what they do and, presumably, who are they doing it with?”]
“Yes — of course”… the woman replied
“Then you are nothing like us”- Jackie said…
And, for me, as well as most people in the profession, that is very true… Just putting the words “celebrity” and “journalism” in the same sentence seems a bit too much… Yes, on the first glance there might be similarities, details that make the audiences believe that we are , somehow, the same or similar — but the truth is that we’re not…
Yes, you can call yourself a “celebrity” this or that… but if what you do, is run after famous people trying to catch an embarrassing, or private, photo — You are anything but a journalist…
For us, there is something utterly demeaning, and completely immoral when it comes to splashing out people-s lives in public. ( even in cases when we are talking about celebrities- who, in most cases, welcome any kind of press coverage and often generate the “bad” publicity themselves) and then.. there is “who becomes one…” thing…
I am talking about the people who choose to become “celebrity journalists”, overall, they are not a nice bunch, and none of them could make their way in normal media … IN the vast majority of cases, the ones who decide to do that are either young men/women who believe that, that particular line of work, will somehow give them their 5 minutes of fame , ( it never works, yet they do believe that the fact that they keep talking about famous people will make them famous too ) or individuals with very few or no real skills whatsoever , who understand that the only way for them to make a living in the profession is digging for celebrity dirt- and the more dirt, the better the money…
Still, at the end of the day they are trying to pass on information to the public- so, I suppose that , in a way, that does make the journalists- or reporters. The trend is driven by the audiences- if millions upon millions of people were not interested in who did whom in Hollywood, which actress had her breasts augmented , or what kind of toilet paper does a certain singer use, then there would be no need for celebrity journalism. But, the unfortunate truth is that the audiences ( especially in the western countries) , do have more interest when it comes to the lives of celebrities, then they do about things which actually affect their own lives…
What am I trying to say???
Well, I do see the way these people report as an invasion of privacy… But, again, the invasion is driven by the hunger of the audiences for “juicy” details of someone-s life… Yet, the same people who devour every word written about someone from the screen, would shudder from the thought of their own lives being pulled apart in public… And the same applies to the “journalists” in question… who, might be using the same, or similar techniques and systems as other people in the profession but if writing about celebrities is all you have.. you are not a journalist… no matter how you spin it… at best, you provide a media service for the celebrities you are writing about… and who do not even have to pay you…
At the worst….