#2 Tabloid Media

 

The Toxic Tabloids

They are everywhere. In the malls, at the supermarket, in the bookstores, they can be found in so many places it almost seems like it is impossible to avoid them. With uncensored titles and photos, and well-chosen colors to catch people's eyes, they are getting a lot of attention. I am talking about tabloid media.  

At a younger age, the tabloids were my favorite part of going grocery shopping with my mother, but now as I have done some more research on the topic of tabloids I am not sure I like them as much anymore. Now as I know more about tabloids I would name them as toxic, invasive, disrespectful, and dangerous. They are also the base of thousands of rumors spreading around, twisting celebrities' words from interviews and sometimes excluding some parts, everything to make people buy the tabloids to earn money on it. 

This type of newspaper is filled with the press' comments on female celebrities' bodies, weight gain and weight loss, and even their private life crisis. The entertainment value of the tabloids has made sure that we are all missing the red flags and the damage they actually cause. The tabloids are set to be a big part of the base for perpetuating body image issues, endangering public figures, and normalizing sexist and even illegal comments. Nowadays tabloids have also made their way into social media sending out clickbait titles and misinformation on platforms like Twitter and Snapchat. Doing this has made the tabloids expand their audience and normalize this facet of society to them. The tabloids are even more harmful to teenagers since they are in the stage of unsureness and working on finding themselves. There is an alarming number of former Disney Channel actors entering the industry as children, that have experienced mental health breakdowns or substance issues later in life, and now the same pattern is seen to happen with TikTok stars. (Daily Free Press)

Research shows that the tabloids in England are way more brutal compared to the tabloids in the United States. As an example, that is why Megan Markle was facing a serious culture shock at the hands of the British press at the time of her royal family drama. Tabloids in England are using more brutal headlines in order for more people to buy them, the more outlandish the headline, the more intrigued the reader. The hard truth is that celebrity scandals are selling, no matter how harsh and toxic the stories are. According to RD, the reason the British tabloid press is much more salacious is that there are simply more of these downmarket papers in the U.K. battling it out to sell copies."The British tabloids are more aggressive because they operate in a small and cut-throat media environment," says House. "Also, British social tensions over class, race, immigration, and status may provide easy targets for reporters to exploit". U.K. tabloids even have a history of harming the people they cover. As an example, Princess Diana died in a car crash while trying to avoid the paparazzi. 

 

In conclusion, tabloid media is something very toxic and dangerous for our society. It has caused a lot of damage and will most likely continue doing so but nowadays in a different form over social media. Reaching out to millions of teenagers everywhere. A good idea would be to find a way to decrease the number of tabloids but that might be a tough assignment to finish. I do not like the idea of tabloids since I do believe they are only damaging for people and since I believe the celebrities deserve to have their private information stuck as private, and not for the world to see and hear about.