Internet survey shows obsession with celebrity
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Quick quiz: In a nation that is grapping with Mideast violence and economic uncertainty, what was the hottest Internet topic?Britney Spears, of course — at least judging from the annual list of top search items issued by Yahoo, the popular Net engine.And while the singer's recent misadventures certainly sent the prurient scrambling for their keyboards, Yahoo reports Spears already had a lock on the top spot.Rounding out Yahoo's list of top overall searches: World Wrestling Entertainment, plus a cascade of other celebrities and celebrity vehicles: Shakira, Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton, "American Idol," Beyoncé Knowles, Chris Brown, Pamela Anderson and Lindsay Lohan.While thousands of Web sites are dedicated to high-minded pursuits — from health care to improved vocabularies — tracking low-rent celebrity culture remains the pastime of choice on the Internet.Perhaps this should come as no surprise. Advances in mass communication — the printing press, photography, movies — have always led to more base uses.The Internet seems no different."The technology is sort of ethically neutral," said Bradford Mudge, an English professor at the University of Colorado at Denver who teaches courses in popular culture. "For every guy who gets on the Internet and wants to learn more about brain surgery or the French Revolution, there are 444 looking for porn or idiot celebrity culture."Launched in 1994, Yahoo has morphed into a global brand whose stated mission is to "connect people to their passions, their communities, and the world's knowledge."The Internet as teaching tool was a particularly potent notion in the United States, rooted in a long-cherished image: the educated common man.Granted, search-engine hit lists can be skewed by their own filters and interfaces. It's also worth noting that while America's obsession with celebrity has been fueled by the Internet, the phenomenon existed well before the first computer.And the Internet, awash in perpetually updated celebrity sites such as drudgereport.com and defamer.com, delivers.It's worth remembering that nearly 60 years ago, the nascent technology of television was also touted for its educational potential. Of course, by 1961 TV was derided as a "vast wasteland." That complaint came from no less than Newton Minow, then chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.According to Yahoo, even if you limit the year's most popular searches to news stories, the two top hits were the deaths of TV naturalist Steve Irwin and the son of Anna Nicole Smith.The Iraq War came in third, followed by Israel and Lebanon, U.S. elections, Fidel Castro, North Korea nuke, JonBenet confession, Saddam Hussein trial and Danish cartoon.Dogpile.com, which combines the top results from leading search engines, listed these top subjects for 2006: Ecards, MySpace, music lyrics, game cheats, baby names, food, jokes, Paris Hilton, dictionary and poetry.At Google, Yahoo's rival, the No. 1 overall search item was Bebo, a social networking service similar to MySpace, which came in second. (Google does not release its hit numbers, said Sunny Gettinger, the company's corporate communications manager.) Rounding out the top Google searches: world cup, metacafe, radioblog, wikipedia, video, rebelde, mininova and wiki.On Google News, a compendium of searches for news stories, Paris Hilton topped the hit list. This is a person who seems to have no other function than her fame."What happens is that what these celebrities actually accomplish pales next to the constantly revealed secrets of their private lives," Mudge said. "Gossip, delivered by the Internet, constantly refreshes that well of what's happening with their inner lives, or at least what we're told is happening."
By WILLIAM PORTER The Denver Post
http://www.protect-x.com/
Quick quiz: In a nation that is grapping with Mideast violence and economic uncertainty, what was the hottest Internet topic?Britney Spears, of course — at least judging from the annual list of top search items issued by Yahoo, the popular Net engine.And while the singer's recent misadventures certainly sent the prurient scrambling for their keyboards, Yahoo reports Spears already had a lock on the top spot.Rounding out Yahoo's list of top overall searches: World Wrestling Entertainment, plus a cascade of other celebrities and celebrity vehicles: Shakira, Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton, "American Idol," Beyoncé Knowles, Chris Brown, Pamela Anderson and Lindsay Lohan.While thousands of Web sites are dedicated to high-minded pursuits — from health care to improved vocabularies — tracking low-rent celebrity culture remains the pastime of choice on the Internet.Perhaps this should come as no surprise. Advances in mass communication — the printing press, photography, movies — have always led to more base uses.The Internet seems no different."The technology is sort of ethically neutral," said Bradford Mudge, an English professor at the University of Colorado at Denver who teaches courses in popular culture. "For every guy who gets on the Internet and wants to learn more about brain surgery or the French Revolution, there are 444 looking for porn or idiot celebrity culture."Launched in 1994, Yahoo has morphed into a global brand whose stated mission is to "connect people to their passions, their communities, and the world's knowledge."The Internet as teaching tool was a particularly potent notion in the United States, rooted in a long-cherished image: the educated common man.Granted, search-engine hit lists can be skewed by their own filters and interfaces. It's also worth noting that while America's obsession with celebrity has been fueled by the Internet, the phenomenon existed well before the first computer.And the Internet, awash in perpetually updated celebrity sites such as drudgereport.com and defamer.com, delivers.It's worth remembering that nearly 60 years ago, the nascent technology of television was also touted for its educational potential. Of course, by 1961 TV was derided as a "vast wasteland." That complaint came from no less than Newton Minow, then chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.According to Yahoo, even if you limit the year's most popular searches to news stories, the two top hits were the deaths of TV naturalist Steve Irwin and the son of Anna Nicole Smith.The Iraq War came in third, followed by Israel and Lebanon, U.S. elections, Fidel Castro, North Korea nuke, JonBenet confession, Saddam Hussein trial and Danish cartoon.Dogpile.com, which combines the top results from leading search engines, listed these top subjects for 2006: Ecards, MySpace, music lyrics, game cheats, baby names, food, jokes, Paris Hilton, dictionary and poetry.At Google, Yahoo's rival, the No. 1 overall search item was Bebo, a social networking service similar to MySpace, which came in second. (Google does not release its hit numbers, said Sunny Gettinger, the company's corporate communications manager.) Rounding out the top Google searches: world cup, metacafe, radioblog, wikipedia, video, rebelde, mininova and wiki.On Google News, a compendium of searches for news stories, Paris Hilton topped the hit list. This is a person who seems to have no other function than her fame."What happens is that what these celebrities actually accomplish pales next to the constantly revealed secrets of their private lives," Mudge said. "Gossip, delivered by the Internet, constantly refreshes that well of what's happening with their inner lives, or at least what we're told is happening."
By WILLIAM PORTER The Denver Post
http://www.protect-x.com/
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