The recent rise in deaths of some of the world’s most famous celebrities has continued to shock people around the world.
Beginning with the death of English actress Natasha Richardson on March 18, the celebrity death toll has risen steadily to include David Carradine from ‘Kill Bill,’ Johnny Carson’s sidekick Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett of the original ‘Charlie’s Angels,’ king of pop Michael Jackson, legendary broadcaster Walter Cronkite, TV pitchman Billy Mays and ‘Dirty Dancing’ star Patrick Swayze, who died Monday night.
‘Out of nowhere there came a sudden upswing of celebrity deaths many of which caught people off guard,’ Boston University College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Kami Alabi said. ‘Michael Jackson’s death was truly shocking.’
According to The Los Angeles Times, many editors were planning to print Farrah Fawcett’s picture on the front page until they heard of Michael Jackson’s sudden death on the same day that started an unstoppable frenzy in the world of journalism.
‘Farrah Fawcett’s death is a good example of how one story completely dominates the other in the news,’ College of Communication film and television department chairman Paul Schneider said. ‘We would have to have an invasion from Mars to distract us from Michael Jackson’s death.’
‘The fact that we knew Farrah died of cancer and we did not know how Michael Jackson died also added to the publicity craze,’ CAS freshman Caroline Shea said.
Schneider said our culture to worship celebrities has grown to preposterous proportions in the past few years.
‘Unfortunately, the whole obsession with celebrities is something like getting people addicted to sugar or drugs making it utterly destructive,’ Schneider said. ‘While it is in the nature of media to milk stories, especially television where it is all about the ratings where they will do anything to get more eyeballs on the screen, when Michael Jackson died it was as if Abe Lincoln died.’
School of Management sophomore Nick Elias said he is tired of media coverage on Michael Jackson’s death.
‘The intense amount of publicity around his death has become a circus,’ he said.
Schneider said the death of TV pitchman Billy Mays at the age of 50 was equally shocking but it did not deserve the level of coverage it received.
‘I was very perplexed as to why that merited that kind of coverage, it has less to do with any real justification and more to do with the media searching for human stories to milk,’ Schneider said.
‘When a public figure dies it is obvious that it will be televised but there is no need to blow it out of proportion,’ Shea said. ‘Anna Nicole Smith’s death was like the death of a royal diplomat.’
Sargent School of Health and Rehabilitation sophomore Hannah Nichols said she doesn’t like the media idolizing celebrities.
‘ ‘Michael Jackson was an unbelievable artist, but he was not god-like,’ she said.
Schneider said media and print, particularly television media are reluctant to speak ill of dead.
‘ ‘There was tremendous pressure to emphasis the star side of Jackson because there is a fear that if they [the media] rose too many of the darker and negative questions they will offend a lot of people,’ Schneider said.
If Michael Jackson had not been such a big star, then the cause of his death would have been greatly emphasized, Schneider said.
‘He died of involuntary suicide, he asked his doctor to give him a drug that was extremely dangerous,’ Schneider said.’
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