Over the past 2-decades, we have witnessed everything being integrated, even if it was not always labeled as such, for example, globalization is a form of integration of world economies. We started the 1960s with Integrated Circuits, or ICs, but that was a purely technical term. We have now moved into Integrated Business Planning, Integrated software and application packages, Integrated Healthcare/Health Management, Integrated Solutions, and a seemingly unlimited slew of Integrated ‘Things’ and ‘Approaches’. But now I discover Integrated News Media.
You see, historically we had serious daily and weekly newspapers such as Le Monde, The Guardian, NY Times, Washington Post, Time, Newsweek. We also had specialized dailies and weeklies such as Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, etc. Then we had dailies and tabloids which dealt with celebrities, such as Gala, Paris Match, National Enquirer, and a seemingly unlimited number of them all over the world that pry into the life of celebrities (artists and socialites).
In parallel, we had a world where the celebrities were distinguished from famous scientists and businessmen. And politicians stood somewhere between the two, which makes them Integrated Personalities. Tabloids were not interested in people like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs initially. These leaders did not have a life that provided the necessary material for their publications.
This all has changed now that we have entered the age of Integrated Personalities and News Media, and there are no better examples of it than Elon Musk (Integrated Personality) and Wall Street Journal (Integrated News Media)!!
The other day, I came across an article in Wall Street Journal about how Elon Musk and Sergey Brin’s (co-founder of Google) friendship was ruptured by an alleged affair that Elon had with Sergey’s wife, a certain Nicole Shanahan (It also led to Sergey filing for divorce). I guess because Elon Musk is a prime celebrity businessman, and an affair with a friend’s wife is a pretty good material for tabloids, that certifies WSJ’s article as a tabloid article. At the same time, since WSJ talks serious business and even in this article it links it to some business (Sergey has instructed his advisers to get rid of his portfolio of Musk’s businesses), it is also a serious article, thus the notion of Integrated News Media (Celebrity trash news and serious news).
Elon has denied the affair and claims that he is still good friends with Sergey. That makes it even more of a juicy celebrity trash news, worthy of being followed. Oh one last thing: click on the link below, not to read the article, but to see the side by side photo of the two celebrities. Don’t they look alike and dress alike, but with a slight difference? That makes it even more juicy. I guess in the 1970s people bought Playboy for its serious articles, and now people can buy WSJ for its juicy celebrity tabloid journalism!
- https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-affair-sergey-brin-wife-divorce-11658674840?mod=hp_lead_pos4
Paris, September 15, 2022
Zeejay