The media has a number of roles and responsibilities, one including informing the general public of the current and ongoing affairs and acting as a mirror to the society. In its efforts to share information with the public, the media sometimes goes too far beyond the boundaries of its source of information leading to exposure of secretive, personal and private details that were never intended to be exposed. These actions of the media come with effects, both positive and negative but most certainly, more of the negative effects. It has been often known that the targets of the media have been big companies, famous people and their next of kin and more frequent than least, politicians. Now among the effects earlier mentioned, some tend to be ethical issues. This paper seeks to show some of the ethical issues involved when the media and the press as a whole expose the private affairs of children of celebrities and famous people
Ego and pride development by the children of famous people is at the top of the list of these effects. It is an inevitable effect turning out to be an ethical issue as a result of the media. For the famous people, the media are like hawks constantly observing their every move and activity and almost all times. Due to this constant receiving of attention, the famous will always strive to do actions that impress their fans, some of these actions turn out to be outstanding, pleasing and some even respectable. When it happens that the famous person is a family guy (having a spouse or a child, or both), the attention will not only be drawn to them but also their spouses and children. These children realize that they are getting attention from the public too and some then become proud and egomaniacs automatically. They tend to ride in their parents’ fame only to boost to the world how lucky they are to be where they are and obviously, rich! Hannah Gibson and Christian Gibson, the older children of Mel Gibson serve as a good example.
It is not a guarantee that every occasion, event and the various activities the famous are involved in, will always turn out to be perfect, even as the media prey on the famous for all the information they could get. There are some of the moments when things take an opposite turn and embarrassing sites, scenes and actions spread virally thanks to the media. Such embarrassing moments are unpredictable and therefore, inevitable and leaves the celebrity/famous person in an awkward situation and as a result, they are barely able to face the camera (Achstetter, 2013). The secondary effects of such events tend to fall on the children, who face criticism and mockery mostly from their friends and schoolmates. A certain traumatic experience befalls these children owing to their parents’ actions. These children feel a sense of rejection in the society, leading to low self esteem and antisocial behavior. Sean Federline and Jayden J. Federlineis, the children to Britney Spears, are examples of kids who went through such.
Seclusion from different classes of people is another ethical issue that arises as a result of the media criticism maybe when they were either seen socializing with low-lifes or at times high class people. News is accessible by all, including children of celebrities. When news goes around that a certain child of a famous person is associating with someone of a different social class, and in many cases a lower social class, the public view tends to judge negatively of such news. A child in such a position is likely to feel uncomfortable by the judgment received from the public, and this leads him/her to seclude from associating with people from different walks and cultures of lives other than the ones similar to his/her’s.
All in all, the media should be very analytical of the type of information that it exposes to the public. A lot of considerations are to be put into the effects of exposure of certain kinds of information (Barnes, 2010). Rumors are unstoppable, but let not the media be pointed fingers at for being responsible for certain exposure of private affairs. It should be noted that being a celebrity or famous has its price and consequences that they should be ready to handle always.
Reference
Achstetter, U. (2013). Internationale Jahresbibliographie der Festschriften. Berlin: De Gruyter
Barnes, R. D. (2010). Outrageous invasions: Celebrities' private lives, media, and the law. New York, N.Y: Oxford University Press.
Cooper, T. L. (2012). The responsible administrator: An approach to ethics for the administrative role. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
