Everyday newspapers like “The Sun” and “The Daily Mail” post gossip stories about celebrities which we as normal people seem to thrive off. As they say, “any press is good press”, however is this always the case?
Looking at the recent tragedy of Caroline Flack taking her own life, many are arguing that the press are to blame. They took her life and displayed it for everyone in the world to see. While some may argue they are just doing their job – providing us with news, others are claiming that their pestering actions are the reason she took her own life.
However, can we just blame the newspapers? Other media platforms have just as much blood on their hands. Take twitter for example. Once the news story came out about Caroline allegedly abusing her boyfriend, thousands of users took to writing nasty tweets about her and #noncecaroline became trending on twitter. Then just 2 months later, after Caroline has taken her life, the same users are writing mental health awareness posts and things like #RIPCaroline and #carolineslaw are trending. It’s a ridiculous world we live in.
People are sheep, they’ll believe anything they read on the internet without checking the credibility of the source. Whether Caroline assaulted her boyfriend or not, she did not deserve to have her whole life displayed on the internet for everyone to see and criticise. No one deserves to be made to feel so alone that they think the only option left is suicide.
News platforms use clickbait to draw in users and exaggerate stories to spread gossip and drama, what they don’t realise is that this gossip is about a real person who has real feelings. People are hiding behind keyboards giving out false or exaggerated information for the sake of a few more clicks on their news story. Because I have to admit, we all do it, we all enjoy reading a bit of gossip about who is having an affair with who and who has been arrested for what. I even laughed at a meme on Twitter that was posted shortly after Caroline was arrested. Would I laugh now? Absolutely not, because that would be insensitive and wrong. But why can’t we as users see this earlier?
When will we as users realise that the profiles we interact with online are just as much people behind a screen as we are? Caroline was crying out for help long before she decided to take her own life, however no one noticed as people are too interested in the next bit of online reading that The Sun has to offer.
Even now, only days after Caroline’s death, the media are still placing her ex-boyfriend in the public eye. Instead of giving him the privacy he will undoubtedly need in this time of grieving, the media are following him and writing news stories about him. How is this OK?
In many ways I believe the Press are strongly to blame for Caroline’s death, however we as users are equally guilty. Every time we fall for these click-baited articles we are funding the news platforms that spread this gossip. We as users need to become wiser in our online reading by boycotting these unreliable, gossip articles and focus on the news platforms that actually spread real news.
At what point do we say this is going to far? How many lives have to be lost before we do something about media? Who in your life would have to die before you cared about changing your behaviour on social media?
Please comment to let me know your opinion 🙂
Rach's English Language and New Media Blog 
I agree that the media have been a huge cause of Caroline Flack’s death. I also believe online trolls have played a huge role, and I have seen recent tweets of people still being nasty and called her names like ‘an abuser’ and ‘a paedophile’ and people saying things such as ‘what do you expect’ regarding the nasty comments, suggesting she deserved to die! It seems that her mistakes won’t be forgiven, and people are still being just as insensitive now. Social media has made it far too easy to make such nasty comments and it is out of control.
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