Sunday, 19 August 2012

Celebrity Gossip: Credible Yellow Journalism - Entertainment - Television

Celebrity gossip is now not taken as a news item that can be relegated to the inner pages like a footnote. The term 'Page 3' came into vogue to respect and recognize the readers' growing interest in celeb gossip magazines and tabloids. With the coming of web portals and online entertainment news websites, you could safely that yellow journalism has turned a new leaf. Paparazzi scoops could now be made available to the reader in real-time updates. The coming of the internet has also made information accessible to all corners of the world.

Celebrity gossip portals do not rely on dubious sources for information anymore. They want to bring a certain amount of seriousness and credibility when they are reporting on celeb gossip. The meaning of the word gossip has morphed into something closer to news instead of remaining something seedy. Entertainment news itself has thrown off the garb of being tagged as rumors of the back alley. Suddenly you have reporters on beat placed outside the houses of famous personalities, looking for actual sound bytes and paparazzi scoops instead of depending on little birdies.

Celebrity gossip tends to sensationalize. That is where there is fabrication and distortion of facts. Readers like to read their gossip in a way that entertains. They don't like entertainment news to be deadpan as the other news features that they read. To cater to this demand, yellow journalists are blending the two disparate worlds and offering the news pieces as infotainment. Journalists who had only dealt with supposedly serious topics like sports and crime are actively taking up Page 3 without any qualms. The coming of the paparazzi scoops proved to be a bane for some celebrities, but now that is not that overbearing anyway.Celebrity gossip now involves all the trappings of journalism that give it a distinct edge of credibility. Reporters have authentic sources of information. Thanks to the active social media presence of many celebrities, entertainment news always has the first hand information about them. Twitter is the most predominant among the social media platforms that celeb gossip reports are based on. Compulsive tweet-persons like Kim Kardashian and Tila Tequila publish even the most mundane daily activities on Twitter. As a matter of fact, journalists stay tuned on the Twitter pages of celebs, looking for updates.

Celebrity gossip news items are known to be a little sugar-coated and sometimes journalists add more than a touch of imagination while writing. Celeb gossip has a lot to do with wish fulfillment as well. More often than not, entertainment news items are written without even getting out of the work station. Readers of paparazzi scoops know this as well, so they prefer to check out more than one web portal before making a final call on a story.





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