In this
current age of social media, with the musing and daily activities of a
c-grade celebrity being broadcast out to millions on twitter, do
celebrities still have the right to privacy?
Nordhaus (1999) believes that "personalities and affairs
of celebrities are viewed as inherently “public” and this is construed as
waiving their rights to privacy”, but only in terms of information that is
relevant to a celebrities working life. This is in interesting concept as
the global media doesn't exactly have an ethical reputation, nor does it have a
reputation for recognising boundaries.
(New Yorker, 2012 n.p)
A recent example of this would be the treatment of Prince
Harry's recent trip to Vegas by the British press. Price Harry was born
into the life of a celebrity, this was certainly not something that he chose.
The Royal Family's Lawyers requested for the British press to refrain
from publishing the naked photos of Prince Harry as they were a breach of the
Princes' privacy and of no public interest. The photos were quite obviously
a breach of his privacy, surely most would agree that he is not the first to
live by the mantra 'what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas', however this was
not the case for him due to the family that he was born into. Was The Sun newspaper really ethical in their
argument that the British people deserved to see these photos in their
newspapers, even when the photos were
already widely available online?
References:
Nordhaus, J., (1999), Celebrities’ Right to Privacy: How Far
Should the Paparazzi be Allowed to go?, published by Annenberg School of
Communication, retrieved 1/9/2012 from
<http://www.asc.upenn.edu/usr/ogandy/c734%20resources/celebrities%20rights%20-%20nordhaus.p >
The Sun (2012) 'The Sun publishes naked photos of Prince Harry', The Sun, 24th August, retrieved 1/09/2012 <http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/sun_says/4502239/Prince-Harry-Vegas-Pictures-The-Sun-publishes-photos-of-naked-Prince.html>
Collins L, (20120) 'Prince Harry and press freedom', The New Yorker, retrieved 1/09/2012 http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/lauren-collins/2012/08/the-sun-naked-pictures-prince-harry.html>
This was a simple easy to read blog. I enjoyed how you started of with a question to entice the reader. I would like to see the reference list set up a little more spacious, just because it makes it difficult to separate each reference. You could maybe add a little more spice and embed a video or an image just to make it more exciting. Great choice of image though, it sits really nice with the blog so maybe it could have been to much to add anymore media. Overall great job :)
ReplyDeleteI really like your blogs. That are very well written and flow well with a great use of media. This one follows the trend with one exception being the use of quotation marks in your reference. But otherwise an interesting read with a great discussion regarding the rights of one born into celebrity and what really needs to be public knowledge. Well Done!
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a good blog post concerning the issue of the right to privacy in relation to celebrities who are active on social media platforms to the public such as Twitter and Facebook. You raise some interesting ethical questions about the role of the media in relation to the current Prince Harry situation. A lot of what we see in the media probably isn’t within the realm of a larger public interest or value.
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