Word: media
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Indeed, between the memories and goodbyes, much of the memorial was about the media. A clip reel displayed tabloid headlines, and several speakers portrayed the singer as the victim of sensationalism. "Maybe now, Michael, they will leave you alone," his brother Marlon said. "Wasn't nothing strange about your daddy," Sharpton told Jackson's children. "It was strange what your daddy had to deal with." (See the top 10 Michael Jackson moments...
People can debate whether that's true, whether Jackson was a victim, whether the media persecuted him during his child-molestation trials and other scandals or soft-pedaled his history after his death. But certainly in death, Jackson served the media the way he did in life: as a limitless draw for audiences. (And yes, I know I write this in a magazine that rushed out a special commemorative issue the weekend after Jackson died...
Given the big ratings, clearly not everyone thinks the coverage is too much. The traffic on Twitter showed that the public was generating its own Jackson media. That's the easy media defense: People want it! To paraphrase Michael, we can't stop 'til you get enough. (See 5 media myths that Jackson's death debunked...
...that ignores the effect journalists' choices have on what people want. The media don't brainwash people into wanting MJ 24/7; millions deeply loved him. But once a news frenzy gets momentum, it becomes its own justification. The spectacle becomes the reason for the spectacle. It becomes The Thing That Everyone Is Talking About...
...media are as susceptible to this as anyone. Journalism isn't a single-minded monolith that decides what to foist on the public. It's a collection of individuals, who are just as easily affected by the feedback loop, while feeding into...