| Paparazzi have become a stable part of today's | | | | of their websites. The question of why this is can be |
| media. If a celebrity's aiming to have a private Santa | | | | answered easily: The lives of celebrities attract |
| Barbara wedding, you can be sure there will be | | | | greater numbers of readers. |
| paparazzi there waiting. At every destination wedding | | | | Consider the big weddings in recent times such as |
| photographers will have their cameras out and ready | | | | Brad and Angelina, Tom and Kate, Jennifer and Ben. |
| to get a shot of the happy couple. While the nature | | | | The bride and groom at each of these weddings |
| of invading ones privacy would come as morally | | | | took extreme care to control the media presence at |
| questionable to most of the public, members of the | | | | these events. In fact, these celebrities saw it fit to |
| paparazzi are forever looking for photographs that | | | | take control of the way their wedding is portrayed, |
| could land those millions of dollars. When this kind of | | | | agreeing to only certain reporters having access to |
| money is in question, issues of morality and ethics | | | | their wedding, and having these reporters agree to a |
| tend to take a backseat. | | | | set version of events to take back to the news |
| While it could be expected that tabloid journalists | | | | desk. |
| would feel a pang of guilt for their behavior, most | | | | This control of the media has become necessary due |
| see themselves as fulfilling a desire from the public. | | | | to the pressure celebrities feel to provide information |
| This can hardly be denied, as the popularity of | | | | to their fans. Each of the three couples mentioned |
| magazines that sell photographs of celebrities without | | | | above also took it upon themselves to release a few |
| make-up, out with their family or, indeed, getting | | | | pre-approved photos of their weddings to the media, |
| married is staggering. These images allow readers to | | | | in order to placate their need for images of the |
| move past the heavily made-up, airbrushed and | | | | event, and to lessen the value of paparazzi images |
| generally "fake" celebrities, and see that those we | | | | that may have been taken. |
| idolize as somehow above us are human after all. | | | | The nature of the paparazzi today has become |
| The invention of the internet seems to have | | | | unnecessarily invasive. The deeper issue that needs |
| increased the popularity of tabloid journalism. While | | | | to be considered here, however, is why there is the |
| newspapers are slowly suffering an increasingly bleak | | | | desire of "normal" individuals to peer into the private |
| loss in sales, many reporters of substantial news | | | | lives of others. As long as this need is in place, the |
| stories have been put out of work. For those who | | | | paparazzi will always have an audience of paying |
| provide celebrity gossip and photos, however, there | | | | customers. So long as the money is there, someone |
| remains plenty of work available, and even respected | | | | will be willing to go into uncertain ethical territory, in |
| newspapers have tabloid journalism at the forefront | | | | order to get the massive payday on offer. |
