A topic of my own...

Rather than turn to writing about previous Journalism lectures, I have decided to blog on a topic of my choice today. We all know that on the 22nd of March, just two days ago, Jade Goody lost her battle with cancer. I realise how tedious it got for everyone; a new story about her every day without fail on the cover of every tabloid newspaper, with headlines such as 'Jade's final wish', 'Jade's last word', 'Jade struggles on' etc etc. But to put up with the masses of stories we did have to read about we have to look at the reasoning behind her decision to make her story so public. Jade wanted to raise as much money as she could for her two sons, so as to enable them a secure future with good education. She believed that to do this she could, in a sense, use the media to make the money, by selling her story and doing interviews and photo shoots for the papers. This meant that journalists would be prying into her life constantly, wanting more and more up to date stories to write about. But was her decision a good one? Certainly for her sons futures it was, but we can ask the question, did Jade lose all her right to privacy when she made this decision to sell her story? Did she deserve to be left alone to deal with her cancer more than she was? Some can argue that the moment she chose to go public with her ordeal was the moment she lost all of her privacy rights, and I agree. Jade should, and probably did, realise that she would be followed and snapped up until her death. If she hadn't chosen to be open with her story then I would understand if she had a problem with being harassed by the paparazzi, but hers was the opposite choice, so I disagree with anyone who thinks it was unfair of the newspapers to follow her relentlessly.

OK! Magazine was accused of making a huge misjudgement after publishing a tribute edition which was said to contain the 'final words' of Jade. But, this was all published before she had died, so how could they be final words?? The magazine edition even had a black border around the front page with a sub-headline ''in loving memory 1981-2009". Mildy humorous it may be, thinking of the editors sitting around in their office, unable to stand one more day of waiting for the ball to drop, so to speak, Jade's friends and family were less than happy to hear about this tribute turned obituary. The Press Complaints Commission received complaints about the edition, and is making an initial assessment of whether an investigation is necessary after friends said it was "bloody disgusting", and "all that was agreed was a tribute. This is clearly an obituary, they got it totally wrong."

I think that her idea to use the media for her family's gain was a positive step, but with that she had most likely gained enemies through her constant updates in the news. From talking to people about it I know that reading her stories, although saddening, has proved tiresome over the last few weeks, but for Jade all that mattered was her family, and I think she used the media to her full advantage.