Celebrity Pop Culture

Karen Sternheimer spoke about the media and the influence it has on us today. One point she brought up which I thought was quite interesting was the fact that we follow celebrities to avoid facing reality. One issue she thinks we avoid is poverty. Poverty is an issue individuals should be concerned with however, watching TMZ and following celebrities on Twitter seems to entertain more individuals. She brought up the idea that entertainment lets one escape reality temporarily in order to feel less depressed. Another topic I enjoyed is how the media often portrays the billionaires of the world as celebrities when in fact the richest individuals of the world are often not celebrities. An example that was given during the conference was the mentality of most people, "Lindsay Lohan did not pay taxes this year--students please blame her for the class cuts in your local community college." Sternheimer argued why it is wrong to blame only celebrities. Lastly, I enjoyed hearing the audience's point of view. The speaker seemed to ask the crowd lots of questions to see the different ideas and opinions they had. I liked the message that was sent to us: do not always blame the media. One should find more reliable sources rather than E.T(entertainment tonight) and OMG(gossip blog.)