Voyeurism

That is all!

A sneak peek into my next few posts . . .

Pruane2Forver

This guy is a youtuber who is absolutely hilarious, brilliant geek. . . Not too sure if he knows it.

More on Gumball

Information on dates, locations and possible sponsorship details. And the unveiling of the official name.

Hypnosis (Darren brown Marshall Sylver etc. . .)

General thoughts, does it really work – and an excellent video!

Check VERY soon for these posts . . .

I was recently asked.../PIMM’s/Reality TV

What is the best way to tell someone you're not interested without being harsh?

Owh joy. To be fair you really should not have let it get that far, but you'll find the answer I'm no Agony Aunt.

Seriously – when the sun shines everyone is so much happier. All is good, everyone forgets the fact that the MP's are claiming

Lots on expenses and the like. Is this all over the world or just in the UK. Us Britons do love talking about the weather and all seriousness

We do get excellent weather for the latitude we are on. If you consider other countries at the same latitude as us, Russia etc etc . . .

We have exceptionally good weather, but we all live for these sweltering hot days.

Hoorah to global warming I say. Bust open a bottle of PIMM's and kick back.

Weekend has been good very minimal revision but today (Sunday) has been quite revision orientated whilst drinking a glass of PIMM's or two

A really good song is a cover by Pendulum of Violet Hill by Coldplay check it out. It is awesome.

Exams are not long away, then we have a fabulous summer on ice.

Was flicking through the papers today and they are all still banging on about the MP's expenses scandal, maybe come up with another story we are ALL bored of it

Now. Remember European Elections are coming up, please do not vote UKIP or BNP. Lib Dems will do guys! Hoorah to Vince Cable.

Britain's Got Talent has now just finished. Diversity won check the video here if you did not see it... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJIz8BgRQc0

Now this has finished we are going to be stuck with bluddy Big Brother for the summer. Ho hum. I always get sucked into it unfortunately, but

And then after that we are stuck with X Factor and then

it is nearly Christmas. Gee Whizz the years do get faster when there is so much going on.

If you want to see more on Reality TV I did an essay http://helloedwardmorgan.blogspot.com/2009/05/why-do-media-continue-to-report-on.html

Take it easy,

More on Gumball soon ( I promise. . . .)

This post is called Emma Palin, I promise to try and keep on topic

 

Friday night, is real revision time huh.

My mum is constantly on my back about revising for the end of year exams we have coming up very soon,

Now I am not saying this is a bad thing, I like her motivation and the fact that she wants me to do well.

However I really am not sure whether she understands that every so often I need to loosen up and just take a time out

To enjoy myself with my friends etc. . .

Regardless of what she thinks, I WILL go out – she can only really advise me now, and I think that it is starting to click.

And what I learnt from this, and an incident at school which we shall call the clippers, is essential to life is understanding

How to read people and understand their habits and what bugs them and what gets them motivated.

Friday night then, went out to spoons for a while, was disappointed with the amount of people out, however those out were corkers.

Real keepers a good laugh. So a bunch of us allowed going to Phatz (which is the shitty local nightclub for those who have the pleasure of not knowing Maidenhead)

We went back to Britnells for a chill in the summer house. Proper relaxed. Cushti... Big up for that! Much appreciated ROOMIE (inside joke)

More and more people are on this idea for a Gumballish rally in the UK, I think I am going to go ahead and start planning it.

Provisionally the beginning of August, for those who are interested in participating.

 

On another note, European Elections are coming up on Thursday June the 4^th, these bigot twats such as BNP and UKIP are really rallying for votes and for heaven sakes please

DO NOT vote for them. Or Labour, I think they will see that the general public will be voting for other parties anyone but Labour. Hopefully parliament will see how badly Labour are

Doing a vote of no confidence can be put forwards and then we can get a general election.

ONE last thing, Old school garage is my vibe right now. Perfect

 

I can never keep on topic, EVER

An Idea...

So I have had an Idea, sparked from watching Gumball 3000 – to do something rather similar within the UK.

Rather than it being a 3000mile journey it could be a three day event. After the summer exams are over.

Essentially it would be driving by the day and partying at night. Teams would be of no more than three persons per vehicle.

At the moment is just an Idea, but would be brilliant to put it into the works.

Of course it would cost money for each individual to get involved.

Not money to the running of the rally but for the teams to function things are going to be needed such as fuel, camping stuff or hotel rooms?

Drinking, Food etc etc . . .

But I really would like to do something like this and I am more than happy to organise something with some help.

It would be great to hear of interest.

If you would like to participate, or help organise hit me up on Facebook. My link is on the right hand side of this page.

Cheers Ed.

Why do the media continue to report on celebrities such as Paul Burrell, despite the way public opinion has turned against him?

The whole notion of my hypotheses is centred on the ideology, representation and perceptions of celebrities. Who, what and why, they are celebrities and, why they are still reported in the media, despite negative public opinion. The advent of new technologies allow for the public to gain closer access to celebrities. However, real celebrities (those who are famous due to talent) are out of reach of the public, holding this mysterious aura keeps the public interest whether liked or disliked. Due to the new reality television culture we now have two types of celebrity: new celebrities, those from reality television and old celebrities those with real talent. Deciding what it is Paul Burrell possesses and what type of celebrity he is will help to decide why the media continues to report on celebrities such as Paul Burrell!

Hypotheses:

1. I believe that the reason the media still reports on celebrities such as Paul Burrell is because there is a continued interest from the public.
   
2. The public interest stems from an air of mystery about him, surrounding the inquest into Princess Diana's death.
   

Research Method:

In order to achieve a full and detailed analysis of my hypotheses and attain a thorough answer to either prove or disprove my hypothesis, I used a variety of sources from both primary and secondary research:- books, the internet, magazines, newspapers, trade press and Mintel reports forming the secondary research.-; questionnaires, surveys, interviews, focus groups and observations all create the primary research. I tried to use as many of these as possible to gain a better insight in to my topic. However some methods listed above are not entirely relevant to my topic. The materials I referred to the most were: books, the internet, magazines and newspapers (Secondary). questionnaires (Primary). The collection of Qualitative data was quite hard to put statistical data but was a vital tool and source in backing up claims that I made. Quantitative date was easier to collate and make use of but unless qualified with a statement was completely useless. Using a variation of both I feel made my research both valid and thorough.

I will generally refer to 'the audience' as 'the public' or 'the general public'. The reason being as the main modes of media I am covering appeal to the mass audience.

No.	Question.	How?
1.	What are celebrities?	A Survey/ Internet and Books
2.	Is Paul Burrell a celebrity?	A survey
3.	What is your opinion of Paul Burrell?	A survey
4.	Are reality TV stars portrayed positively or negatively in general in the media?	Observations of Media Theory Books
5.	What interests the Public in "celebrities" such as Paul Burrell?	Focus Group, Survey and Internet research

Research Collected

To start this research task I decided that I needed to understand what celebrities are. The Oxford English Dictionary simply states: 1. a well known person 2. Fame. The history of being famous, some say started with the pharaohs of Egypt, put their names in the ancient scrolls, to ensure that they would guarantee that they would remain famous for centuries. This spurs the task on further. After all my desk research into discovering what a celebrity was I found a complicated formula that Forbes use to rank their list of 100 top celebrities. The formula takes into consideration the following: estimation of celebrity earnings, media metrics such as how many hits on Google, appearances or articles in the press, TV and Radio cites and the amount of times the celebrity has appeared on the front cover of over 50 chosen consumer magazines. After taking notes on the list that Forbes had compiled, I begun to notice what exactly a celebrity was. To a lesser or greater extent a well known person, the whole idea and notions of who celebrities are and how people are made celebrities is the factor that is changing over time.

If we look back in time, we see that celebrities were exclusively those with talent. Take the 50's and 60's as an example we see that celebrities were those who were untouchables. Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Muhammad Ali, Woody Allen, Michael Caine and Frankie Valli are just a few of the celebrities from this era. Each celebrity held this status due to a raw talent. Elvis Presley a singer, musician and actor was dubbed the 'King of Rock 'n' Roll.' Muhammad Ali, the three time world heavyweight champion, and was dubbed as the "Sports Personality of the Century" by the BBC. Michael Caine an actor of high magnitude esteemed with various awards such as two Oscars a BAFTA among other awards and nominations in total a much respected 28 wins and 37 nominations. Contrast the above celebrities with today's modern celebrity. The public now look up to celebrities such as Paul Burrell, Jade Goody, and Jordan aka Katie Price, Sharon Osbourne and Peaches Geldof. In my opinion the 'celebrities' of today have nothing on the real celebrities of the past. Paul Burrell a butler, Jade Goody appeared on a TV show and was accused of being racist to another contestant, Jordan is well known due to her silicone breast implants, Sharon Osbourne married to a rock 'n' roll legend, Peaches Geldof, the daughter of Bob Geldof, on her own website it claims that she is famous for being a socialite. Between the contrasts of these celebrities, there is a reason for why this shift in what the public en-mass view as celebrities has changed dramatically. This is the answer I feel to my overall question on why the media continue to report on celebrities such as Paul Burrell. This interest is rooted in the power and status that the celebrity title holds.

In western society we have a system of status and placement. Our whole culture is based on this system. This dates back to the time of Kings and Queens, put simply these days we have Upper Class, Middle Class and Lower Class. And as much as these barriers are trying to be broken down, it is ever more prevalent. Businesses determine this simply with their marketing; a main way businesses divide up their markets is through 'socio-economic status'. Upper Class, Upper Middle Class, Middle Class, Lower Middle Class, Working class and Lower Class. Sometimes put as A, B, C1, C2, C3 and D. Another example of placement is exercised in the bubble of Hollywood. The idea of the A to C lists, and climbing up the celebrity ladder to become an A-lister, is one in which encircles socialites and those who follow the celebrity culture. The former editor of women's magazine Cosmopolitan, Marcelle D'Argy Smith put my point very well in an article she did for the BBC, "It seems that anyone can hit the headlines. Talent and achievement are definitely not requirements for celebrity status – heavens no – look at Jade or Jordan. But due to the increasing number of talent-free, ego maniacs making the news it has deemed necessary . . . to classify celebrities."

I think that this occurrence of the public being able to become celebrities has been propelled forwards via the medium of reality TV and magazines. The shows that have been extremely influential catalysts have no doubt been 'Big Brother' and the 'X factor' (amongst other talent contests such as 'Pop Idol' and 'Britain's Got Talent!') A brief search on Google confirms this notion. I typed into the search engine "Reality TV Shows" and after clicking on the first five links displayed on the page Channel 4's and Endemol's "Big Brother and "Celebrity Big Brother" are noted on all links.

I took a similar approach with the celebrity gossip magazines, and discovered that there were copious magazines offering similar stories and styles of celebrity gossip. Most notably in England are, 'OK' magazine, 'Hello' magazine and 'Look' magazine. In three online articles on this issue the main note of interest was that these celebrity magazine weekly's are having falling numbers in circulation, despite the public still thriving for their updates on the celebrities, the reason being is due to the speed and ease of access to getting the information and gossip online. The shows and magazines allow 'us' as the public to become a celebrity far easier through infamy. Earlier in this research task I stated that it is the contrast between the past and present celebrities, which is a key factor in why the media continue to report on celebrities on Paul Burrell. However, the issue of infamy is also of great prevalence within this issue.

To look at the issue of Paul Burrell as a case study more closely I decided to view him, like many other celebrities, as part of an industry. Industries exist in the western society, on the whole to make money. During 2001 and 2002 Paul Burrell received a lot of bad press (aka infamy), due to an enquiry involving items belonging to Princess Diana and the Royal Family being stolen. In order to continue making money in 'the industry', Paul Burrell had to use this media spotlight, and take what he could from it. Obviously, he wrote two books, 'The Way We Were' and 'A Royal Duty'. He also appeared on ITV's ' I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here...Now'. Using mediums such as these, Paul Burrell was able to start making money again, as a business.

The general public of the UK, have recently become completely involved with the concept of reality TV shows. As mentioned earlier, the reasons for this is that it brings (either themselves closer to celebrities or closer to becoming an awkward celebrity.) Most commonly seen in 'Big Brother' and 'I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here...Now'. The viewing figure for the final of this series was over 11 million viewers. This platform is one in which dwindling celebrities, which can only fall due to the class system we have in place in the western culture, can restore their careers. Tessa Jowell MP argued a similar point in an interview with the Financial Times. She said that it was just a show in which celebrities' could revive their careers. With shows that bring you closer to becoming a celebrity, even just for a moment, such as Big Brother, it is not about raw talent any more it is more about being. Being yourself. Bob Greene of the Jewish Review wrote an extensive article on how ideas and notions have changed and evolved over time into what and why we love reality TV. Bob Greene suggests that it has evolved due to both the producers and the audience. "The creators would create and the audiences would receive." The producers, part of the industry, who need to make money, can make more money by reducing costs. Instead of paying for celebrities to appear on programmes such as 'Big Brother', the programme creates celebrities through them public being themselves on the show. "Now, though, this has begun to change. The audiences--at least representative members of the audiences--have been turned into the creators, or at least into the products of the creative process." Due to the class system which is ever dominant within our western society, the public strive to become celebrities, even if it is just temporarily. However some become an enduring stain in the stars. "Public people were once defined as such based upon the fact that their remarkable skills had brought them to the attention of the public. Now, though, we appear to be entering an era in which the skills are unnecessary. One can become a public person just by being a person, in public." Bob Greene does not seem troubled, with the change in what the public/audience are demanding, as Tessa Jowell MP is. He simply views it as a linear change over the course of time, and that it will continue to evolve. "Soon enough, the audience will be escorted off the stage and back into the audience."

The public can only know what they are told, through the media. This is known as the mediation process. Dr John Gardner put this process into a picture which explains the theory.

If we put the case of Paul Burrell through the mediation process, we can begin to understand, a few of the reasons he is being reported in the media. The producers of newspapers and news broadcasts have to decide whether reporting about Paul Burrell will make the business any profit. This is often well represented through the 'news values' devised by Galtung and Ruge. The idea was that the more values a story had, the closer it will be to making the headline. In brief, good headlines will sell more papers, and obviously this means more profit. The news values that Galtung and Ruge devised were: Frequency, Negativity, Unexpectedness, Ambiguity, Meaningfulness, Reference to Elite Groups, Consonance, Continuity, Predictability and Threshold.

If we put these values into the case study of Paul Burrell's we can truly see that the producers of the news would obviously report the stories involving Paul Burrell. The stories of course are negative towards him. It is totally out of character for a close friend and butler to supposedly steal items of the Princess, therefore the story is unexpected. It has meaningfulness towards the UK as the Royal Family is part of the Democracy and mould that is the UK. It is of course a reference to an Elite group of people, the Royal Family. Due to these factors we can see that it was of course a massive headline, and the news producers and editors will have definitely put it as the main headline for some time.

A question that I continuously considered was, "Is Paul Burrell actually a celebrity?" And again reached the definition of what a celebrity is (see endnote 2), and I felt in that sense that he was. He is a well known person. But I felt that this was not enough; I wanted to put the theory into practise, so I carried out a survey – entitled "Is Paul Burrell a Celebrity?" I handed out the survey to 27 people, of different ages and genders. And from this primary research I carried out I extracted the following statistical data. 24 people had heard of him, 8 of those questioned followed the series "I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here...Now" featuring Paul Burrell. 22 questioned felt that he was a celebrity. For further details into the results and findings from the questionnaire see the appendices.

What truly astonishes me is the enormous amounts of press coverage that somebody can receive in the 21^st century. Take for example Jade Goody, who's career stemmed from Big Brother, she has received massive amounts of airtime through being infamous. The whole of Britain knows her name. However I am pretty sure that not everyone knows who Neil Armstrong is! Young children, for example year 7 pupils, not every one of them would know who Neil Armstrong is. To back this theory up I asked a small group of pupils in the 6^th form in a casual environment if they knew who Jade Goody was, all said yes. I questioned the same question, this time concerning Neil Armstrong, three did not know who he was.

Conclusion:

The media is a two way dialogue. Take, if you will, a see-saw, it tilts two ways – this effect is duly noted in the media with the emphasis on audience. With what they want and what the industry wants. The emphasis can and will tilt either way. The industry wants to make as much profit as possible; why? Due to the mercantile and capitalistic culture, existing within western society that is ever prevalent in our country. The Backbone of this is the societal ranking and placing order too. Paul Burrell whether we like it or not, is famous, he makes the news, why? Because the news companies make money out of him, this is seen in Galtung and Ruge's news values. Public opinion has turned against him, yes – this if often, a favourable outcome for the media industry. As negativity a key news value noted by Galtung and Ruge sells papers and makes headlines.

I have disproved Hypotheses A – the reason he is still reported in the news, is not due to a public interest in him, but the surrounding features of him being a celebrity through infamy. Shows such as "I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here Now", put him on air as he was still in the aftermath of the trial surrounding Princess Diana's missing items

, he was also a relatively new 'celebrity' at this point. For ITV he was surely to be a cash cow, he was cheap to hire on to the show, and he would bring in viewing figures. I have in consequence proved Hypotheses B – In general the interest, comes from not the celebrity but the aura and mystery surrounding them and the celebrity system.

Unfortunately, the barriers to becoming a celebrity are being broken down, making it easier for the audience to become the celebrity (even if just temporarily.) This is what has changed to the detriment and made the representation of celebrities to appear even more so vain – this is noted with magazines such as GQ (Gentleman's Quarterly), with the 'best dressed list.' This again links into the ever moving change along the linear route of the fall of celebrity, where the talentless are becoming the select few to be celebrities. Will this fall of talent continue to spiral down due to reality TV? No, but It will most definitely continue to evolve and change.

What we do know for sure, is that the public, desire the celebrity lifestyle and will continue to do so, they will continue to want to know about celebrities! Regardless of whether or not public opinion on celebrities changes negatively, they will still be reported in the media.

A wishlist

We all long for things, it is the hedonistic liefestyle (witnessed in The Great Gatsby) that we all enjoy. For example the good majority of my pay check goes on going out drinking buying clothes etc. . . very little goes on the more mondane things such as books etc. . .
If you are reading this, it is more than likely that you are in the top 2% of the worlds population in terms of capital wealth. Yet we are always wanting more. And to be honest we will get what we want. Not that this is bad of course, it is what we know. In Africa, living like they live is what they know. Just like speaking a language. It would feel wierd for us to go live in a mud hut and eat just rice and water all the time, and vice versa for an African to come live in our society.

I do not feel bad for the way we live in society yet we get these activists going mental at us for have two tv's in our houses. . . What is wrong with this? I want more tv's I actually want more stuff... I am content with my belongings but heck I would like more...

I have nothing wrong with activists . . . but I despise the fact that they condone me for wanting more. My family have always donated money to charities it just really grinds my nipples seriously.

Back to business though it is because of the capitalistic and hierarchical society we live in that this is the way things our, always wanting more - to climb the ladder of society the programmes we see on TV mtv cribs for example all fabulous houses. . .
And I do not condemn this in fact this is what I want to climb
I want to climb this pyramid that we live in and BE at the top, a fat cat in society and live the high life
I want this I want that. . . But one things for sure we will always be wanting more, and yes wherever we are on this ladder I believe money should be donated to charaties and that to whatever an individual feels appropriate but I do not want to be condemned for climbing the hypothetical ladder and enjoying my hedonistic lifestyle.

Lifes for enjoying! relax

God The UK

I love going abroad. I really do. Places I have proper loved and inspired me mainly have been USA (New York, LA, San Francisco, and The Grand Canyon) On seeing these places, they are all so huge. I mean it is brilliant. Such a vibe and I would love to live out in NY it is soo busy all the time. I reckon even when your 50 you would still feel young! But its this great thing about America on the whole that is just soo magnificant!

And you know what it is. The whole notion surrounding the America Dream. My God its spectacular. But when you take apart what the American Dream is, you realise its now built on nothing - this is why it is all so spectacular to why and how these cities such as NYC exist. And why people continue to want to live their!

Don't get me wrong I'd love to live there! But i'd rather live in Greece. Thanks

Big Brother

Is starting again pretty soon, To watch or not to watch?

What can this year have that is so special. I mean I always end up watching it - but I dunno its not great, the idea of watching people in a house. If I want to do that I could play the SIMS aha.
How many series are they guna drag it out for. pft. ho hum.
http://www.channel4.com/bb_holding/index.jsp

Expenses: owh you cheeky MP's and a few other little nit bits.

So we all know about these cheeky MP's claiming for things, we've had them claim for cleaning a moat, to buy a floating birds house. So they are totally paid for by the tax payer. Now I do not have a problem with MP's claiming for expenses for things they need: but do you know what really grinds me is this second home allowence?
Why don't we renovate a big lot of land into a communal living for the MP's opposite the Houses of Parliament. We could make it all green and efficient. It would cut down on all this stuff, and it would all be fair? Its what they do in USA and Australia.

Also what i really despise is the fact that we have people who obviously are not experts in what they are minister for. WHY do we not have doctors as the health Ministers and let them or a council of the doctors come up with what we need, and proper businessmen doing the commerce side of things.
If something were to happen it would have to happen now, whilst the expenses are being tidied up why do we not sort out the whole of the Houses of Commons.

Also get Gordon Brown OUT nowish please, Vince Cable (LibDems) is the MAN to sort it all out. http://www.libdems.org.uk/
And please why why why do people vote for UKIP they are just muppets, who are too scared to be BNP but are thinking the same.
DICKS

On another random strand I am rather excited about seeing John B live very soon. www.myspace.com/johnbbeta

So once again instead of revising . . .

. . . I find myself doing stuff like creating a blog. I've recently signed up to Twitter http://twitter.com/edwardmorgan and have found some of the information on there pretty interesing.
One link I found quite funny off of twitter was http://www.awkwardfamilyphotos.com
Oh boy that website has had me in stitches for a day or so.

I watched Gumball 3000 http://www.gumball3000.com/ with the Jackass team last night for the first time in a while and it got me inspired, to do one here in the UK with a heap of mates.
If anyone fancy's wing me msg on facebook or something. . .
It would be cool to do a race around the UK with checkpoints. Laughs. Shits and giggles of course.

So School is pretty much finished now: just exams which I should be revising for right now but ya know I need a break etc. . .

Exams though man are long. How about the teachers just grade us at the end of each term, and if we dont pass we go down a year? thats what they do in the US.
One last thing if you haven't heard of the Cassette boys do go look on their youtube!
http://www.youtube.com/user/cassetteboy they have just done a video on Alan Sugar and another good one is Gordon Brown they are clips of videos to make them look stupid. Definately worth a visit!

Ciao