In popular media culture, when you have three similar things happening, then it automatically becomes transformed into a ‘thing’, a trend, something to be imitated and repeated and reported on until everyone gets sick to death of it.
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It is fascinating to see the evolution of the 24/7 news channels when they seize on one event out of many to devote almost their entire coverage. If the issue is not resolved quickly, the nature of the coverage descends into more and more bizarre speculations, almost completely unhinged from reality. Often these stories are about missing young women but the current one about the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 follows that familiar pattern and the news channel HLN ended up having a psychic to tell viewers what she had ‘seen’. You can see the segment here.
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It is a truism in the marketing industry that the 25-49 age group is the one you should be chasing. Not being a marketing guru, I am not quite sure why this is because it seems like older people in general are the ones with more disposable income, while younger people are dealing with the expenses of starting out in life, raising family, etc. Maybe it is because older people are more set in their ways and can’t be easily persuaded to chase after the next new thing or adopt the latest fashion.
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I had never before heard of L’Wren Scott until her suicide was reported yesterday. This is not surprising because although she was apparently a highly gifted fashion designer whose work was sought after by many celebrities, she is not a household name for those who do not follow the world of fashion, unlike Dior and Vanderbilt and others who also serve a mass market and advertise widely.
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There has been much discussion about the benefits and costs of social media. On the one hand, it enables people to form communities and relationships with like-minded people without proximity being a factor. This has been a boon for people in low-density population areas or who have interests shared by just a small fraction of the population. But one downside is that immediate physical communities may suffer as people withdraw into their virtual worlds.
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The news media and the internet in general is abuzz about the mysterious disappearance of the Malaysian airliner on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and we are at the stage where theories as to what happened are getting increasingly exotic. I have not been following the story closely because it seems likely that despite the fervent hopes of people who had loved ones on it that the plane might have landed somewhere, the sad truth is that it did crash into the ocean and that everyone perished and that eventually the wreckage will be discovered and the cause determined.
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