Journalism and Charlie Sheen: A Marketing Explosion!

I rely on journalism to an extent to inform me of what is going on in my town, in my country, and around the world. But like your average college-plus educated person, my intake of journalism goes through a critical filter because I know that 1) Sometimes the writer (whether inadvertently or purposefully) inserts his or her own opinion into the writing, 2) Sometimes the source of facts isn’t extremely reliable or information is twisted in order to make the author’s point, and 3) Journalism is, in large part, about marketing.
This should come as a surprise to very few people, but journalism is all about readership, viewership, ratings, and advertising dollars. Sure, the journalists themselves may have gone to journalism school with the admirable vision of bringing the news to the people and keeping America informed, but they are under pressure from executives to select content that will drive ratings/readership (and subsequently advertising dollars). So not only are the way some stories are written slanted a bit to make them more interesting, but the very selection of the stories we are exposed to is partially driven by what we’re the most likely to read/watch.

This is all a little bit of a downer, I know. So allow me to switch gears a little and talk about journalism as a marketing vehicle. Public relations is as much a marketing vehicle as anything else because every press release and news article about a company contributes to the brand or image of that company. Sometimes it’s used as a necessity to inform investors of what is happening in the company, but it can also be used to maintain or change the image of the company, and in either case, has to be written very carefully.

Interestingly enough, though, it does seem that in some cases, the old adage of “no such thing as bad press” holds true. Companies go through painstaking efforts to make sure that a press release is worded in just the right way. But when it comes to celebrities, even news that makes them look bad will just drive buzz and interest in them. Take Charlie Sheen, for example. His recent interviews and news stories about recent events in his life have not been entirely flattering. Yet despite this unflattering news (and the fact that you would think his outrageous ego would turn many people off), his popularity has reached all-new heights. Although his show “Two and a Half Men” is currently on hold, reruns of the show have skyrocketed in ratings. He reached nearly 1 million followers within one day of his first tweet on Twitter (having just signed up in the past week), which is faster than anyone else has been able to achieve the same (and his follower base is still growing). It may be the popular thing to make fun of the guy, his antics, and his constant references to “winning,” but the fact is, he sort of is.

So when it comes to journalism, what makes a good story? What kinds of stories are things that the most people would be interested in? Instead of answering that question, let me point out the following. The Charlie Sheen story has been all over the press in the last week. He has been interviewed countless times, pops up in every newscast, and although some people complain about over-exposure, it would seem the journalistic media can’t get enough of him. He drives ratings. I could liken him to a train wreck—we see him crumbling before our eyes and yet we can’t look away. I recall another story that was eaten up by media everywhere, and it is that of Ted Williams, the homeless Ohio man with the “voice of gold,” discovered on the side of the road by a local journalist whose YouTube video launched this man into nationwide fame in January 2011 and landing him countless job offers. After that, he sort of fell off the map. So what happened to that guy? Reports say that his overnight fame, full of the glitz and celebration opportunities that come with it, did prove to be a bit too much too fast for the man, who admits to have fallen back into alcohol and an altercation with this daughter. He did spend a couple of weeks in rehab, and is reportedly exploring an opportunity for a reality TV show. But why is it that the country fell in love with this man and his rags-to-riches story, but had no interest in watching his subsequent struggles? And yet when it comes to watching the struggles of someone like Charlie Sheen, America can’t get enough? Could it be that we like to see someone at the bottom succeed, but when someone is at the top (way beyond what most of us could hope for), we want to see him fall? Do we really just want to see the world average out to the middle class?

It’s something to think about. When you’re looking at a news page online, which headlines do you click on to read more? When watching the news at home, what stories make you hang on to every word and which stories tell you it’s time for a bathroom break? Sure, some topics interest us more than others based on our own lives, what affects us, and what things we find interesting, but it’s a package deal—we are always prone to make decisions about stories based on how the story is marketed, whether it’s the teaser, the headline, a certain picture, a name that we recognize, the prospect that something could harm us or that an injustice has been made against us, etc.

Or in the case of Charlie Sheen, sometimes it helps us to feel like our lives are a little more tame or “normal.”