869 witch trials
First it was "Entertainment Weekly", then "Us Weekly". The hot spots and scandals during this year's awards season were really more exciting each time. The people watching were so excited that they wanted to scream. Even Christmas was not so exciting..
After the previous 48 hours of brewing and precipitation, this time the special report by "U.S. Weekly" caused a greater uproar, far exceeding the previous far-reaching influence of "Entertainment Weekly".
First of all, on the official website of "American Weekly", the number of visitors increased dramatically within twelve hours. Previously, the average number of visitors was less than 40,000 per hour, but now it has increased to 5 million per hour! Even though Us Weekly learned from its experience and prepared its servers in advance, it still caused a system crash that lasted fourteen minutes..
Within twelve hours, Gavin Hunter's report attracted 50 million views, easily breaking the historical record set by Entertainment Weekly not long ago; and the number of reposts of the special report also increased. It exceeded 100,000 times, almost growing at a geometric multiple, sweeping the United States like crazy..
On Facebook, on Twitter, on the photo wall, on the Yahoo community...even on IMDB, and even on China's Weibo, the news spread in a mighty manner, with North America as the leading From a foothold, Asia, Europe, and Oceania have begun to be fully popularized, and the discussion heat has truly reached its peak..
From a concert to the entire awards season, from the North American continent to the whole world, no one expected that this news event would create such a powerful wave - from the side, the meaning of entertaining oneself to death, and then For once, the focus is not on Renly's own innocence and the truth behind the bad press, but on the entertainment aspect of the entire news event.
Secondly, U.S. Weekly’s physical magazine sold half a million copies in one fell swoop. Even U.S. Weekly’s own editor-in-chief was frightened..
“"Entertainment Weekly" has just sold 400,000 copies, astonishing the print magazine-related media throughout North America. Everyone is amazed that under such a background of the times, it can actually sell 400,000 copies. It is incredible..
“When deciding the print circulation of "U.S. Weekly", the editor-in-chief tossed and turned for a whole afternoon, gritted his teeth and made a decision with a hard heart, and then decided on half a million copies. Once the decision failed, he might be fired directly and bear the responsibility of the group. loss; but who would have thought that all the first printing of 500,000 copies would be sold out！
Later, "U.S. Weekly" printed an additional 50,000 copies, but all were sold out. This became a classic case of the best marketing strategy for print magazines in 2012..
From the perspective of a bystander, it is not difficult to understand the attention that the two entertainment magazines "Entertainment Weekly" and "U.S. Weekly" have received and the benefits they have gained: why they planned malicious hype, and why "Entertainment Weekly" "Why is it that the entire news industry is chasing breaking news and gimmicks when it comes to clinging to news events? Why is the spirit of entertaining oneself to death deeply embedded in the marrow of the entire Internet era?".
Hidden behind the entertainment to death, profit comes first after all.
So, "Entertainment Weekly" or "Us Weekly", who is lying? And who is hyping it? Since "Entertainment Weekly" can constantly stir up trouble in order to hype up news, why can't "Us Weekly" do the same? How much corroborable evidence is there in Gavin Hunter’s news report?？
Also, why was the key witness not mentioned in the special report?？
Suddenly, the entire Internet was in turmoil, and there were endless voices of doubt. Everyone was participating in the discussion, but no one was able to convince others. Amid the heated discussions and debates, the most authoritative and serious media in the United States, the New York Times, speak again.
This report was not written by entertainment reporter Bradley Adams alone, but by Bradley in conjunction with a social reporter and a sociologist..
“"Witch Trials in the Age of Entertainment to Death", this report is not like news or editorials, but more like an essay. It quotes from classics, explains the profound things in simple terms, and combines news events to analyze the ills of the entire era..
The so-called "witch trials" were one of the methods of Christian persecution of pagans in the Middle Ages. Most of the victims were women. The purpose was to maintain the authority and rule of religion and eradicate heresy..
Before the Middle Ages, women had always been highly respected in the traditional Germanic cultural areas, especially women who made medicine, practiced medicine, and were literate. Later, Christianity developed in the Germanic areas. According to Christian transactions, women should be absolutely submissive to men. As a result, the church began to belittle and vilify women. , fabricated images of women, persecuted women, and even burned so-called "witches" alive”.
This craze lasted for nearly three hundred years. The vast majority of women were innocent ordinary women. After being falsely accused of being "witches", they were immediately beheaded in public, and then burned their bodies. Countless victims were killed. This is the whole history of Europe and human civilization. A dark chapter in history.
Nowadays, "witch trials" are widely applied to the journalism industry, specifically referring to the phenomenon of fabricating, forging, slandering, and slandering innocent people in order to achieve their goals, which in turn triggers public opinion and frenzy, causing the parties involved to fall into a trap. Michael -Jackson is a famous witch trial victim in Hollywood history..
This article in the New York Times provides a detailed analysis of the connections between the Internet age, fast food culture, entertainment to death, and the supremacy of interests. Driven by enough interests, even ordinary people can become news selling points. , even vicious criminal incidents can be used as political means, and even behaviors that touch the moral bottom line can become the object of speculation..
It's like "Hypegate".
The beginning of the incident was actually just a simple and normal phenomenon in the entertainment industry: publicity and hype..
In essence, publicity and hype are actually the same thing, but the methods and methods are different. Publicity is an aboveboard official behavior, while hype is the behavior of using different means to constantly renovate and interpret the same event. It can be understood like this, Hype is exaggerated propaganda.
In the era of popularization of the Internet, the saying "the good wine is not afraid of the dark alleys" no longer works. Publicity and hype are necessary means in the process of business operations. Not only the entertainment industry, even the presidential election is no exception..
Barack Obama is known as the first "Twitter President" in history; the White House and Capitol Hill also admit that feedback from Twitter and Facebook is particularly important and has also become an important tool for promoting their self-image. platform.
In Hollywood's Vanity Fair, the competition for fame and fortune, publicity and hype are inherently part of the essence; and the entertainment industry and the media industry have always been in a relationship of mutual benefit and mutual help..
However, "Entertainment Weekly" singled out special cases and lashed out, accusing the other party of "malicious hype." This behavior itself is actually hype from the media. If the person involved and the media jointly execute it, then it is malicious hype; But if not, this is how the media tries to create focus, create stunts, and create topics..
This is just like a witch trial. For a specific purpose, facts are fabricated and distorted, and the public opinion leadership characteristics of the media are used to disclose a specific part of the facts to guide the public into a wrong cognitive field, and then complete the act of "trial of witches". In the final analysis, it is still to achieve one's own purpose：
entertainment and benefits.
“In the current Internet age, the lives of public figures are gradually becoming more and more transparent. Every public figure living under the spotlight may become the next witch. This is a characteristic of the entire era, and it is also a cancer of the entire era..
Today's victim is Renly Hall, but tomorrow's victim may be you, who is reporting in this feature’.”
“The entire report of "The New York Times" is absolutely professional. It just uses "Hypegate" as an introduction. It analyzes and discusses the entire country, the entire culture, the entire society, and the entire era. The obscure language and rich knowledge truly show With a rich foundation of serious news, a professional and serious attitude, he seriously criticized this phenomenon and expressed his deep concern..
As an entertainment reporter, Bradley took this step ahead of his peers in the entire industry. He put aside the event itself that most media paid attention to, and also put aside the "Entertainment Weekly" itself that "Us Weekly" focused on. Through the phenomenon Look at the essence, truly discuss the roots and causes of the whole thing, and clearly present the motivations and trajectory of "Entertainment Weekly" in front of the public.
In other words, The New York Times went one step further than Us Weekly and essentially characterized, criminalized, and condemned Entertainment Weekly.
If we say that "U.S. Weekly" presented the full picture behind the incident, it aroused people's doubts and prompted more and more netizens to follow the trajectory of time, search for evidence again, and truly begin to examine the "Entertainment Weekly" article The authenticity of the special report; then, the heavy hammer of the "New York Times" triggered a frenzy of reflection among netizens. They calmed down, brushed aside the complicated news, peeked into the development of the whole thing, and found the culprit..
“The special report of "The New York Times" was released a little later. The special report of "American Weekly" had been fermenting for twenty hours before it came. However, the timing was just right. When people began to question, people When the search began, when people began to investigate, Bradley provided the answers in a timely manner, pushing time to continue fermenting..
As the most authoritative print media in the United States, this issue of the New York Times sold 1.3 million copies, creating the highest sales volume since 2006. It was also the first time in the past three years that sales exceeded one million copies.
As for the website click-through rate, it has not reached the height of "American Weekly". After all, the efficiency of serious news is still too low. However, the 20 million click-through rate within 12 hours has still created the "New York Times" itself. new high.
In less than twenty-four hours, the development trajectory of the entire "Hypegate" news incident has undergone earth-shaking changes, and it is still not over..
Comments