A conventional hierarchy of print media would put serious journalism at the top. Far beneath that would be tabloid journalism. And then at the very bottom would be advertising.
Except, in one respect, I think that order should be reversed. Yesterday’s advertising is much more interesting than yesterday’s serious journalism.
I suspect this is because advertising, like tabloid journalism, reflects what people really care about — and always have done. Gossip. Sex. How to attract the opposite gender. What car to buy. Health complaints. Miracle cures. Death. Money. The Beckhams. The Windsors. The new 55in QLED 4K television. At last relief from embarrassing itching. Love Island’s Kaz Crossley displays her jaw-dropping figure in a black bikini as she dances in a shower while in Thailand. How else can a month’s salary last a lifetime?
Advertising and tabloid journalism — they’re the real thing. They are what everyone is truly interested in. Serious journalism, by contrast, covers what a small, self–appointed elite pretend to be interested in so as to appear sophisticated and au courant to each other.
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