Why are notable people more newsworthy?
After listening to Dr. Jerz's newsworthy mp3, I wondered why exactly notable people are more newsworthy. It makes sense that disasters that affect many people are newsworthy and that local events that affect people are as well. They want to learn about this news in order to be aware of what is happening around them. However, notable people such as celebrities do not necessarily affect people. Which is why I wonder what makes them so appealing to the news... any thoughts?
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Dennis G. Jerz on Why are notable people more newsworthy?: Good writing can make any less
Greta Carroll on Why are notable people more newsworthy?: Perhaps it's because we emulat
Greta Carroll on Why are notable people more newsworthy?: Perhaps it's because we emulat
Perhaps it's because we emulate them or perhaps because most people are familiar with them, so stories about them provide could conversation topics with other people. Regardless, I think it's important to remember that ordinary people are newsworthy too if they are "eccentric or surprising." For example, Silbert that we read about in Stockton's article was not a celebrity; however, I found the article written on her, more interesting than the one of Dr. Seuss. To some degree, I think that it doesn't matter what the topic is, but how it's told/presented that matters most.
Good writing can make any less-newsworthy story seem relevant and interesting, so you're right Kaitlin -- just because story A is about a famous person doesn't mean it's a better story than story B, about an ordinary person. But story B has to feature the ordinary person doing something unusual, even if he or she only affects a few people, or does good work that nobody knows about, or is known for refusing thanks and avoiding fame. Just walk down the grocery checkout aisle and you'll see that the faces of famous poeople are part of the marketing strategy to get you to buy tabloids (or tune in after these important messages). A face of a random person doesn't have that kind of market draw.