Toefl essay_topic28: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?...
Score5.0: It is true that media is overemphasizing the personal lives of famous people in this modern society. Some people believe that reading or watching many stories about private life of a public figure or a celebrity from television or newspapers can bring harmful results on people’s life. Admittedly, the personal lives can sometimes serve to distract us from more pressing community or societal problems. For example, an well-known actress who just gain award in a competition of the film. Every thing about this actress became front-page news in the newspaper, the first program on TV. However, the personal lives of famous people can serve chiefly to call our attention to pervasive social or political problems that we would otherwise neglect. chenxitong, chief executive of Beijing, who embezzled several millions money during his incumbency. Although this accidence was astounded demos when people heard this new in television and newspaper, it stimulated demos and national leaders to review our country’s mechanism of supervision on public figures, and mended our country’s legal rules for better preventing the similar accidences. In addition, some personal experiences of outstanding scientists, successful business men or political persons can spur those people who want obtain the same achievement to pursue their dreams. For example, to students who are go in for scientific researches, the personal rough experience of XXX can serve to help them to take over many adversities, and eventually make them acquire success. In conclusion, based on above discussion, I agree with that paying too much attention on personal lives of famous people not only can stimulate our society to solve some social and political problems, but also can help people to realize their dreams.
Score4.0:
Every time when I turn on my TV set, I see a lot of famous people; every time when I open a magazine, I can see a lot of news about famous people. It’s true that the personal lives of famous people are important sources of news valuable to mass media. However, I think it is unfair to say that these television and magazines and other type of mass media pay too much attention to those famous people’s lives. The argument for my view goes as follows.
First, it is us common people, not media, who are curious to have a look at what these famous people are doing. Media are eager to make their readers or audiences feel satisfied and providing news about private lives of famous people is a very important way. Because media need money from their readers or audiences, they have to meet the demands of their gods. So even if media pay too much attention to the personal lives of famous people, it isn’t their fault.
Next, many famous people are famous just because media pay a lot of attention to their lives, both private and public. As is known to all, more and more famous people, especially those famous TV or movie star, are willing to show off in mass media in order to become more popular. If no mass media pay attention to those famous people, none of them have the opportunity to be well-known. So if those famous people say that too much attention is paid to their personal lives, it’s just like I give you a million dollars and then I call the police to say that you stole my money. That’s ridiculous.
Third, not all media pay attention to personal lives of famous people. As far as I know, there are many media which don’t pay attention to personal lives of famous people. In fact, these media are full of the international and domestic affairs, such news as the Iraq war, terroristic attack. They don’t care about the personal lives at all.
So, in a word, we need to think twice before criticizing mass media about their attention paid to the personal lives of famous people.
Others think that stories about public figures and celebrities can bring benefits to people. Under a careful consideration, I strongly contend that advantages of overemphasizing on personal lives of famous people by media outweigh its disadvantages.
But did these things serve any useful purpose? No, these personal lives did not reveal any pervasive problem related with society. Rather, they were merely one incidence of individual’s achievement. Moreover, these personal lives distracted the society from far more important issues, such as social safety, children education etc., which were relegated to the second position of the newspaper and television.
