The Spotlight

In today's New York Times, I read a very well-written column by Frank Bruni that I thought played on what I've been emphasizing in my most recent blogs. The title of the column was "The Invention of Outrage", and it gave a satirical analysis of current news; including the Kardashian divorce, disputes in congress, greece, and CNN. Bruni does a good job in explaining each topic and why people should become shocked or outraged with it, but mostly helps you realize which things are getting a too much or too little attention.

Can someone please explain to me
why she is so popular?

Although with our friends we moan and groan over the spotlight on the Kardashian's mishaps, we all crave to witness their rich, luscious, lifestyles and to watch their failures on television.I think the root of all this is less to the fault of the media, but more as a somewhat true stereotype of Americans.

When you see the details of Kim Kardashian's divorce in every possible news channel, newspaper, online news blogs and whatnot, and not an even measurable comparison of the spotlight on the economic situation in Greece: you can't help but ask why some news pieces get more attention than others.

Which brings me to my big topic: spotlight. Why does America love to see relationships and breakups blown out of proportion while they couldn't care less politics? It's almost as if people are forgetting that politicians are the ones who are making crucial decisions for our country and Lindsay Lohan is, in fact, commander in chief. The reason for this is how much you see of a particular subject, and how much we as a country react to it.
The media has the ability to choose what you see and find out for the day, so whatever they choose not to show you ends up whizzing by you. This could be in terms of political or world news (i.e. one news story over another in terms of its' relevancy), or in more "American" news when the stories with the spotlight has the most whining, "trainwrecks", and drugs/alcohol are usually chosen over the ones with the more relevance.