Persuasive writing - Celebrity culture. Katie Price. She epitomises everything that is wrong with todays media culture. Why is she famous? Im not even sure I know the answer.

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A hundred years ago there were two Englands. One contained the rich people, the Lords, the Ladies, the power, the land and the money. And then there were the other people. The people who lived downstairs, the ones who worked day in, day out and barely scraped a living.

Nowadays, people say it is better. They say the gap between rich and poor is much smaller than it used to be. And this may be true in the facts and figures, but in reality, there are still two classes of people. The normal ones, who work, who have families, who live their lives. And the other people. The Shiny people. The Celebrities.

The word celebrity is banded about a bit these days, and sometimes it’s hard to unpick what people really mean when they say it. In my opinion, not all ‘household names’ and famous people are celebrities. People like Helen Mirren and Stephen Fry are not celebrities. They are famous, of course. But that is only because they are good are their job, like many people in the world. And they just happen to do a job that involves being in the public eye.

Contrast this image of talented and hardworking entertainers, with someone like Katie Price. She epitomises everything that is wrong with today’s media culture. Why is she famous? I’m not even sure I know the answer. She certainly doesn’t deserve the attention she gets in the same way as a talented actor or performer does.

Ah, but it’s come back to me. She’s famous for her enormous breast implants. After all, what would today’s children have to aspire to if it wasn’t for her? Astrophysicist? Doctor? Astronaut? No, none of this is good enough. All we want today is to be famous. Or more precisely, to be a celebrity.

Which brings me onto my next example. There are not many people who I truly believe the human race would be better off without, but he is most certainly one of them. Simon Cowell. He owns seven houses across the world. He runs his own private jet. He has the worst haircut in recorded history. But none of these is his biggest crime against mankind. For that must truly be his contribution to the world of reality TV.

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The X factor.

If it wasn’t for this programme, and all it’s counterparts (most of which, I will add, were also conceived by Simon Cowell himself), Britain’s Got Talent, American Idol and so many more. Yes, if it wasn’t for these, this country’s culture of celebrity would probably never have even happened. This is because the Celebrity is, by its very nature, someone who has no real reason to be famous. And if it wasn’t for the era of reality TV, this concept would never have even begun.

It seems to me that TV companies must have got together at some ...

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