Blogging is an extremely popular pastime in recent years, and one of the fastest-growing kinds of sites is the celebrity blog. While it may sometimes be written by a publicity person, frequently a blog like this is composed by the actual celebrities. Yet the vast majority of blogs covering famous people are written not by the stars, but by the fans who follow them or by professional gossips who make a living talking about them.
It’s likely that these news blogs, perhaps better described as gossip blogs, came first, and that part of the reason 野々のん blogs began to appear was in response to these, so the stars could take back some control of their image. But for a few years, blogs that gossiped about celebrities reigned supreme. This was no surprise, of course, since wildly popular newspaper tabloids like the National Enquirer and magazines like People had been serving a similar purpose for decades. The public has always had a high interest in juicy tidbits about the rich and famous.
But the interest in the stars, thanks to blogs that gossip about them, has attained a level that goes well beyond anything previously seen. A celebrity used to need to avoid the prying eyes of newspaper reporters and television camera crews, but even tabloids and gossip magazines have reason to be envious of the publicity achieved by the new blogs. Even fans are now suspect, posting public photos that might make the stars cringe.
Sports figures, of course, are not immune either, with sports blogs following the gossip trend, running items about players’ love lives or speculation about drugs or illegal activity. And politicians are now major targets as well, having achieved a greater level of celebrity than ever before. However squeaky clean they might portray themselves, if they’ve got a skeleton in their closet, or even just an old finger bone, then someone is going to find them out and make a blog post about it.
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