Piece of me

Or a short piece on tabloids…

Today’s Swiss free newspaper, the equivalent of the London paper, or London Lite had on page one a picture of Barack Obama, and the headline “Barack Obama vows to stop smoking”. It was with slight disbelief that I picked up this particular issue, and carried on reading. Apparently Barack Obama is trying to quit smoking, but twice already has given in to temptation.

Further on in the paper was an article about a lady who had taken the company L’Oréal to court for the fact that, having wanted to dye her hair blonde it turned out brown. She said she had suffered physically and emotionally from this change in hair colour and that she had also suffered from nausea and headaches, causing her to sue the company for having supposedly put the wrong coloured dye in a different packet. She also claimed that this had affected her emotionally since blonde women usually attract men more, being a brunette had dealt her a blow and she was not used to this lack of attention.

It was with utter disbelief that I read both of these articles, all the time wondering what on earth it is that brings people to write such articles. What is it that makes them think that these articles are worthwhile pieces of news? With the whole world in financial turmoil, the headline is that Barack Obama is trying to quit smoking, not his opinion on the economic crisis for example…

This lead me to wonder, what is it that keeps tabloids going? How do they manage to keep their public interested? Do people really seek this kind of information, is this what they consider to be the reality of what is happening? Or do they read it all the time knowing that this isn’t really what is happening in the world right now? Are the people who read tabloids avidly actually aware of what else is going on? Or do they simply seek to give themselves a break in their long day of work, just as I did? I have to admit that I really enjoyed that time of day when I would pick up my London Paper on the way home, and get to read all the silly, pointless stories in it, just for the sake of reading something different and light hearted after a long day of intense studying.

So although tabloids may not portray the reality as it is, it is still good that they are there, providing us with an alternative, a break, whatever it may be. After all, such are the joys of having freedom of speech and press. We just must not forget that beyond the tabloid world, there is a whole lot more going on, and keep that in perspective!