One Of The Only Things Guaranteed In Life
I have a great concern about today’s constant media barrage. And that is the business of death reporting.
Ever hear of the saying, “Things happen in threes?” And how that was often applied to the deaths of famous people, no matter how nonsensical that is? The deaths of famous people happened so rarely that one could keep track of them easily. That’s because not so many people used to be famous. We were not personally acquainted with multitudes of celebrities, creative professionals, politicians, business leaders, and anyone else deserving of at least a footnote in the history of modern society. We also lacked 24/7 news reports and any sort of global network that could pass along news, good or bad, at the speed of light.
About 80 years ago, things changed. The number of feature-length motion pictures produced per year increased dramatically, music records and radio became popular, and the television was invented. Professional sports leagues not only became more popular, but the teams started increasing in number and gaining more media exposure. These circumstances not only created new classes of “famous” people, it also increased the amount of reporting about existing famous classes. Starting in the 1930’s, even minimally famous people had more recognition in the national media landscape than the most powerful people from 2 decades before.
This has cumulatively built up over time. Television’s popularity lead to cable TV networks, and today both standard broadcast and cable stations collectively number in the hundreds, blaring out produced shows 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Thousands of movies, each starring or including dozens of actors, are now produced and released per year. Hundreds of albums come out per year as well, featuring both solo artists and bands. The media reports exhaustively on all the people involved in these endeavors, plus anyone who holds power, reaches a significant worldwide professional milestone, or merely is a granddaughter of Conrad Hilton who doesn’t wear panties to nightclubs.
While most people are worried about what the cult of celebrity has become, including the entire camera-armed hunting industry that has grown because of it, most people are not thinking about how media has an additional addiction in the cult of death. See, because there are more famous people than ever before, and with the media finding new ways each day to find a reason to make someone famous, there is necessarily a result of increased celebrity deaths. Everyone dies, and there are more celebrities around to reach that milestone.
Because no one is holding back on this (it makes for sensational news, and there’s nothing like a long obituary cribbed from a Wikipedia entry to fill column space across from the Macy’s ads), we’re now hearing about 3 deaths an hour. Keep in mind, it’s not even today’s celebrities that are dying - the number is up often for people who established themselves as famous in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. Younger people do die, but that’s rare and unexpected. (And, consequently, covered much more thoroughly when it happens)
So, if right now we’re hearing about an awful lot of people kicking the bucket, and it’s mostly the people who were famous two generations ago, then imagine when the reaper catches up to the current generation of fame! There are thousands of people who are famous for little or no reason! We have to get a death notice headline for each of them! Every B-movie star, Internet celebrity, former NBA star, reality show contestant - I mean, when someone who used to be on Road Rules dies, we hear about it! That’s hardly famous at all! I wouldn’t be able to pick most of those people out of a lineup. Why do I have to hear that they passed on? That’s tragic, sad news! I’ve got my own family, my own friends, my own coworkers, and all the people who know or are related to each of THOSE people. I will hear about people dying quite frequently from my own life. Why do I need to enter the grief cycle every time so-and-so who had that video on YouTube dies in his sleep? Yes, there are too many such people out there living their Warholian destiny, having gained their 15 minutes of fame but who will get another 5 when they’ve shuffled off this mortal coil. And because the world is increasingly obsessed with unlimited information - ahem, Wikipedia - pretty soon you’ll be able to fill entire newspapers with daily notices of deaths you should know about. They’ll have to extend the evening news by an hour so they can fit all the dead people info into the news broadcast. Pretty soon it’ll be death all the time, until there’s no longer time to make anyone famous again because people can barely catch up on finding out who died that day.
Restraint is in order. I think death notices should be one line for all people who are not the current President, Pope, or Tom Cruise. If someone dies and a media consumer is suddenly curious about their life’s history, they should go look it up themselves. It’s just not healthy for society to dedicate so much attention to people who often didn’t deserve that level of attention while alive, either.