The Oscars: Playground Politics
The lifestyles and careers of certain actors and musicians can hold seemingly endless influence over many people's lives and emotions. And thus, these people may follow the events of their chosen idol's life through any form of media available. For instance, many people know that the Oscars occurred not long ago and for some, this is the epitome of talent. Successes and failures are often met with joy, outrage or sorrow of the viewers who come to believe they have a personal stake in the outcome. However the competition, and the term is used lightly, is created in a clever fashion. It is used to portray a common societal issue: the popular versus the unpopular. The media is the tool that facilitates this representation - the mediatization of playground politics.
By popularity, this does not just mean best actor/actress. This is the campaign of popularity. Those nominees, the movies, that the viewers put their faith into. We are seeing high school repeated every year. There are always a few who strive for acceptance and adoration from their peers. These peers consist of two categories: the people who care and those that do not. The challenge is whether to coax or force their peers to admire them, to believe in their "popularity". The media does this superbly and seamlessly.
We are bombarded with information regarding the Oscars, the Aria Awards, the Emmys, etc. every year. It does not even end there. The same occurs for political campaigns in even more worrying ways, as the focus is on the popularity of one candidate (or nominee) versus that of another. A war of the playground where policy may not even hold sway. We are left with little choice whether to pay attention or not. Even those who are able to ignore the events taking place, still know they are occurring. And this is where such award shows and political campaigns have their power. Through the media we hear what little we need to know. As long as some are speaking or gossiping about the nominees, the winners, the dresses or whatever else occurs at such events, then the rest of the population will know about it. And each year there is a chance that these people (the peers who fight for ambivalence or anonymity) will turn around and start paying attention to the loud and salient "popular" creatures behind them.
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