Please read the following article from Time Magazine. A Brief History Of: Tabloids!! By Kate Pickert
When John Edwards admitted what the national Enquirer had been saying for months--that he had had an affair with a campaign videographer--it was only the latest in a string of high-profile scandals broken by the supermarket press. But politicians' foibles weren't always the target of choice for the tabloids. In the 1950s, their pages were splashed with bloody car accidents and gruesome mutilations. Enquirer owner Generoso Pope dialed down the gore in an effort to appeal to housewives in the checkout aisle, replacing it with alien abductions and medical oddities. Celebrity gossip took over by the late 1960s, as the Enquirer and rival Globe feasted on Chappaquiddick, Jackie Kennedy's remarriage and the death of Elvis. (The Enquirer paid a Presley relative to snap a picture of the King in his coffin.) Rupert Murdoch's Star joined in soon after. Weekly World News, billing itself "The World's Only Reliable Newspaper," carried on the mantle of the weird, covering miraculous cancer cures and zombie sightings. "When we inform people, it's usually by accident," admitted its editor. Tabloid circulation peaked in the 1980s, but the O.J. Simpson trial prompted a rapid--and ironic--reversal of fortune. Broadcast coverage of the spectacle eclipsed anything that could be done in print, setting a template for sensational TV journalism that would drive the tabs' circulation down 30% by the mid-'90s. Celebrity print media has bounced back in recent years, thanks to Britney and Paris, although mostly in the glossy magazine format that Star switched to in 2004. And as it is with most papers, the Internet is impinging on tabloids' turf. The new medium has already claimed Weekly World News, which folded in 2007--but readers looking for the latest on the ALIEN BABY LOVE CHILD can still find it online.
ASSIGNMENT: Part 1- DUE the end of class on Monday.
Irresponsible journalism-what you don’t want! Go to the link below http://www.toptenlinks.com/cat.php/News:Newspapers:Tabloids If you have trouble with this, here is a list of tabloids. 1, National Enquirer2. Star Magazine 3. Weekly World News 4. New York Post 5.The Mirror 6.The Sun 7.New York Daily News 8 Globe Magazine 9. Tabloid 10. Mega Star
Read 4 articles from 4 different tabloids. In approximately 200 words, respond to this question: What commonalities do you find within these articles? What ethical problems do you note? What purpose do these writings serve.
Part 2 of the assignment; due Thursday 7 April.
Now write your own tabloid article: length approximately 300 words. Must include an image at the top of the article. Possible topics:
mythology / folk / fairy tale characters. The Three Bears Cinderella Little Miss Muffet The Return of Odysseus Robin Hood The Trojan Horse Davy Crocket at the Alamo George Washington and the cherry tree The Old Woman and the shoe Johnny Appleseed Casey Jones Aladdin Little Red Riding Hood The Little Mermaid Snow White The Three Little Pigs Anything else that appeals to your imagination. Don't forget to apply the who, what, where, when and how to your article. Be prepared to share these Friday 8 April so make sure to put them on your flash drive.
Joseph Gleason
ReplyDeleteIn the four articles I read I noticed several things. Many of the articles are superficial and not focused on a particular message. Also there are several ethical dilemmas in these articles. Also the tabloids seem to market towards escapists.
Many of the articles focus on prominent pop culture icons. The articles all seem to be speculative and focus on superficial items such as clothing. In a “weekly world news” article that spoke about Colonel Qaddafi, the rebellion and political strife surrounding the Libyan leader was not mentioned. Instead his wardrobe and who he would ask to redo his look was the focus.
Ethical dilemmas that appear in these articles seem to be consistent throughout all of the articles seem to be, massive speculations and heresy. Few if any sources are cited and none of their source information that I saw could be verified. In some articles sources were simply cited as “A US journalist” and no fact checking process seems to be used.
The purpose of these magazines seems to be to provide an escape for the people that read them. They talk about all of the glitz and glamor of Hollywood so that the people that read them can in a way experience an escape to a world of riches and glamor. The escapist who reads these does not what to know about the turmoil of the world today, this does not mean that they do not care they just do not want to deal with it at the point in time that they are reading these avenues of escape from reality.