We live in a digital world – not to put too fine a point on it, being online is now de rigeur, a daily pastime, perhaps even a necessity to some. Not being proficient in the digital arena means you are considered old-fashioned, especially as more and more business, personal work, and leisure are being conducted via online platforms, portals, and apps. Put another way, the internet is ubiquitous. It is almost impossible to ignore, and operating without it… well, if you’ve tried recently, you’ll know what a challenge it is!
I think we would all agree that the internet has created an extraordinary online culture that even Tim Berners-Lee, the de facto inventor of the World Wide Web, could not have envisaged. Indeed, it would have been nigh impossible to guess how the internet would turn out, let alone predict how it would be used around the world – I certainly couldn’t have done so! Far from the early days when very few had access to online websites (and come on, let’s face it, there were not many anyway) the internet now offers the chance to do anything and everything.
In the modern world, our online culture allows us to do things from the comfort of our own homes or workplaces, and it transcends global borders and boundaries. Let’s take casinos as just one example of this. Once, if you’d wanted to play at a casino, you’d have had to leave your home, journey across town, and head into a physical building – and you’d have needed to comply with their opening hours.
Now, though, if you want to place a bet? Just whip out your phone and almost every casino in the world is available! Seriously, you can play basically anywhere, and even use cryptocurrency. Imagine that – you’re sitting at home on your couch, in your dressing gown and slippers, and you can play online slots Canada – stacking up wins without even moving from your comfy spot.
And that online world extends far beyond casinos, of course. Let’s figure out how it has made entertainment into mainstream news!
Social Media Society: Making Headlines, Making News
The words “online culture” can mean different things to different people. To some, the internet is the gateway to making new friendships and connecting around the world; to others, it’s a business tool, something that can be used to start a company or extend a consumer base. Almost anything can be done online – and of course, there’s the massive draw of social media, which it seems almost impossible for most of us to resist.
From X (formerly known as Twitter) to TikTok, Instagram to Pinterest, and a multitude of others, social media has emerged, evolved, and is now – in a surprising twist of events – one of the major sources that people use to get their news! Whether you’re checking out the latest political breaking news or reviewing the most recent sporting headlines, looking at online entertainment news, or checking environmental updates, social media platforms are genuinely used as news sources.
This is especially true for the younger generation, many of whom use social media to both consume and share news from around the world, often in real-time. One of the most powerful elements of this social media society, if you don’t mind me referring to it as such, is the fact that it is largely unfiltered, often uncensored, and always available. On X, for example, the content itself often becomes news, especially if the views expressed or the statements made are controversial. I think we can all easily come up with examples of this happening! As I said earlier, our social media society is getting ever more important to some, and powerful for others.
From The Inside Pages To Front Pages: Entertainment Is Big News Online
Before the birth of the internet, and before we had almost innumerable websites and apps from which to get our news and information, the world of entertainment was rarely front-page news. How things have changed! Not only does almost every news website have a dedicated entertainment section, there are now entire platforms dedicated to splashing every piece of entertainment-related news all over the internet, as though it were front-page-worthy.
From the almost endless updates about the Kardashians to the latest fashion trends on the Oscars red carpet, the most recent celebrity to launch their own perfume or clothing line, to the actor who has been made the next James Bond, entertainment news is an online goldmine. If you look at platforms such as TMZ or Entertainment News, or any website that is affiliated with an entertainment network in the USA, you will see just how big entertainment news is online. Take a look at the online streaming media stats and you will soon see how much time people dedicate to quenching their thirst for the latest online entertainment information.
By way of conclusion, I suspect that online media has well and truly made entertainment news something that now challenges “serious news” for headline making. Where physical newspapers are limited to daily publications, online news platforms can constantly update, constantly break news, and constantly feed what seems to be an insatiable desire to hear about celebrities, the world of entertainment, and whatever global stars may be up to at any given moment. I suspect this will continue to be the status quo, and for many online destinations, that may well be a good headline in itself.