Lindsay Lohan: What NOT To Do

Today's class presentation brought up a great question: What role should media play in our society?

A couple things were brought up - entertainment, education, a "watch dog" for government...

In Dr. Lule's book, Daily News, Eternal Stories, he brought up the fact that news keeps society functioning. It highlights what is acceptable and not acceptable to do in society. For example, we watch people being punished for committing a crime, we watch segments about scandals, we watch commentary on government affairs and debates, but we also watch positive stories about people rising from hard times and doing something great. Everything in the news reinforces our values and beliefs as a society.

I think this can apply to all media. Media is an avenue to express thoughts, ideas, opinions, etc. through many different platforms. While you might not think about it, even shows like Modern Family and The Office - shows that are purely for entertainment - are also reinforcing our values of what is accepted and normal at home and in the workplace.

Celebrity culture is another great example of reinforcement of societal values. For instance, Lindsay Lohan has been in the spotlight for various incidents including drugs and acohol, drunk driving, and now the latest: shoplifting. Click here for more on the story.

Society has made Lindsay an example of what NOT to do. This draws upon some Durkheimian concepts- societies have a collective conscience - values, rules, concepts of right and wrong, etc - and we maintain this collective conscience through reinforcement of those values via rewards and punishments. Court hearings, jail time and rehab have been the result of Lindsay's actions. The media has shown Lindsay in a negative light, reinforcing that society does not approve of her behavior.

So, media can have many different purposes, but one thing that connects all media is that it is a reflection of our society, and in a way, it keeps society functioning.

Where is the @BronxZoosCobra?

This was the first post by @BronxZoosCobra on Twitter - 9:45am on Monday, March 28th. The parody Twitter account has been documenting the Egyptian Cobra's escape from the Bronx Zoo. The feed has made light of the actual escape which happened on Friday, March 25th. Click here for the full story.

@BronxZoosCobra has chronicled his past couple days of freedom by highlighting some sight-seeing

and various other snake-related NYC humor. The twitter feed quickly gained popularity, and, as I write this, has 105,000 followers. While this isn't quite the same stir that Charlie Sheen made with a Twitter entrance (breaking the Guinness world record for "fastest time to reach 1 million followers"), @BronxZoosCobra has certainly gained notoriety within the "twitterverse."

Various news sources have even come up with headlines like "Bronx Zoo's missing cobra 'speaks out' on Twitter" and "Missing cobra found: on Twitter!" Some have mentioned the animal's "celebrity status" and it got me thinking about how crazy it is that a simple story can blow up and become so popular. Well, granted, the snake's venom is deadly and it has been four full days since it's gone missing. The story is also fodder for those with the creative gumption to do something with it. It has been the brunt of many jokes on late-night television infotainment like The Colbert Report and Conan, has been turned into t-shirts, and now, someone has created a parody Twitter account. These are some good examples of textual poaching - these people have repositioned a simple news story for their own gain. In the case of @BronxZoosCobra, the anonymous twitterer has become a pseudo-celebrity within the Twitter community through comedic one-liners.

What is even more interesting is that I don't even care about the real cobra anymore because I am so caught up with @BronxZooCobra. The Twitter feed has given the real snake a personality and a point of view. Similar Twitter accounts have done the same by personifying animals (@common_squirrel), movie characters (@Lord_Voldemort7), and even ghosts (@AsaPackersGhost). Twitter has created a new medium to share comedy and wit - a new medium in which to become a celebrity.

Celebrity Culture = Consumerist Culture

The first day of spring was a week ago today, so you know what that means! It’s the beginning of wedding season! And celebrity weddings are starting to make headlines!

Reese Witherspoon got married to talent agent Jim Toth this past Saturday in supposedly “Hollywood’s biggest wedding of the year.” E! News has the latest below.

I love hearing about celebrity weddings – who doesn’t? They’re a happy occasion involving romance and love, not to mention beautiful people. It was interesting, though, to watch this E! News piece, and here’s why:

After having discussed celebrity culture in our Mass Communication class, I am more critical of what I watch on TV, especially the news and all things related to celebrities. We talked about celebrity culture as a function of the capitalist consumer culture we have in the U.S. Celebrity culture, in fact, celebrates consumption and materialism.

This short clip about Reese’s wedding, I realized, is a great example of celebrity culture as expression of consumerist culture. The main details in this clip were material in nature…

• The wedding was held at Reese’s extravagant ranch in California
• Tons of A-list celebrities were in attendance
• She wore a beautiful Monique Lhuillier gown to match her 4k diamond engagement ring

But what’s strange is I felt satisfied with the clip. When I hear about a wedding, I want to know where it was, what the bride wore, and how huge her rock was. I have been trained to care about the material aspects of weddings versus what a wedding should really be about – the vows, the couple’s relationship, etc.

Celebrity gossip is riddled with subtle references to our consumerist culture. Karl Marx would say that this is because the proletariat needs to be kept distracted from reality (that the capitalists are ruling the world and exploiting the workers). Constant reinforcement of consumerism enables our capitalistic society to continue functioning without retaliation. 

I'm thinking Marx was certainly on the right track here - because I totally buy into (no pun intended) the stories in the gossip magazines. Watching celebrities live extravagant lives makes me want to strive to do the same.

Now I'm going to go email my boyfriend pictures of Reese's 4k diamond, hint hint ;-)