Tabloids

By Kate McClintock

Most people come into contact with tabloids when they are standing in line at the supermarket and can’t help but read the headlines of who is divorcing who this week and what horrible events have happened to famous people. The reason behind the popularity of tabloids is simple-people like to read about bad things happening to other people. The thought behind this is the same as not being able to stop looking at a car crash on the side of the highway. People like to know gossip so they can carry on conversations and they like to be able to think about someone else’s problems rather than their own. There are many other reasons people take the time to read the tabloids as well. It may be the thought that some people have that if it is written and published it must be true, and they want things like miracles to be true because they want to believe in them. Other people may be so obsessed with a celebrity and this is the only way they can get information on their ‘star’ that they continue to read the tabloids. Another reason might be that because most of current news stories tend to be depressing, and that when reading the tabloid news a reader does not have to dwell on how many people are dying in Iraq or children getting shot during a drive by shooting.
Tabloids have had some affect on the media, more so in the past than now. Tabloids today are seen as not always one hundred percent true and filled with bias and not the full story. A majority of people do not rely on tabloids to gain current event information but so on television and newspapers. However, when tabloids first appeared people took them as factual information for a while until other distinguished news was able to dispel what appeared in tabloids. This still applies in some cases today where a few people trust everything that is written in tabloids, but very seldom.