Paparazzi and Ethics PDF

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An essay that discusses the issues with Paparazzi and celebrities when it comes to ethical considerations....

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The Paparazzi Imagine if every day, you were stalked by a complete stranger. Everywhere you went, you had photos taken of you, which were then published in the media without your permission. Would you like it? This is the reality of famous celebrities daily, and for some, even on an hourly basis. The paparazzi will do almost anything to capture that one million dollar picture, even if it means that they are extremely disrespectful towards the celebrity, and endanger themselves or others. The privacy rights of celebrities are violated and invaded every day. They still deserve the same rights as any other citizen, despite being famous. I strongly believe that all paparazzi should have stricter boundaries, as their actions are unethical and intrusive.

A paparazzo, by dictionary definition, is “a freelance photographer who specializes in candid camera shots of famous people and often invades their privacy to obtain such photographs.” The job of a paparazzo, or paparazzi for a group of photographers, is to capture pictures of the most famous celebrities, that will sell for the most amount of money to the media. “The paparazzi can get paid fortunes. That's what motivates people; it's about the money, sadly, at anyone's expense.”, is a statement from Davis Cassidy outlining the idea that paparazzi will go to great risks in order to be paid high amounts of money. The paparazzi are known for pushing and shoving, on foot and in cars, blocking public walkways, harassment and causing fear, just to get these pictures craved by the media. Pictures where celebrities are looking their worst, are the pictures that the paparazzi aim to take. The media want embarrassing pictures of celebrities, as this is what makes individuals from society pay money for newspapers and magazines especially. Because of this reason, the paparazzi will do almost anything to capture these embarrassing shots – even if it means putting themselves in dangerous situations, and being disrespectful towards the emotions of the certain celebrity. “That is the biggest form of bullying ever, the paparazzi. Printing lies, making accusations, it's just bullying.” is a quote from Mila Kunis, who has paparazzi stalking her daily. I fully agree with this quote, as I believe that stalking, spreading lies and rumours, and taking unwanted photographs of celebrities is rude and disrespectful, as well as highly unethical. I believe that it is necessary to place stricter boundaries on what these animalistic people can do.

I strongly believe paparazzi should be given stricter boundaries because they are disrespectful and often hurtful towards the emotions of the celebrity who is being stalked, which is very unethical and morally wrong. The paparazzi will sometimes use offensive and rude language to exasperate their targeted celebrity, which then causes the celebrity to get angry, allowing them to capture a picture, and post it to the media, printed alongside a paragraph of lies and accusations. "What is clear, at least at ground level, at the paparazzi level, is that there is a competition to get a shot, that is purchased by others, and that the intensity of this conduct is crossing the line into criminal behavior." Is a quote from William Hodgman, of the Los Angeles district attorney's office. His statement proves how far paparazzi will go, and that they do need to be held, metaphorically, on tighter leashes. Paparazzi have crossed the line from their job, into being hungry animals fighting for embarrassing pictures of their celebrity targets. Why should this type of behavior be expected and tolerated by celebrities? And why should the media and our society have such high expectations for these pictures that paparazzi go to such great lengths of danger and disrespect to get them? The answer to this is, they should not have to. Celebrities have the same privacy rights as regular citizens, so it is unfair and unreasonable that they should have to undergo this type of predicament, which leads me to my next point. Celebrities are of course, extremely talented and are often very inspirational. So does this mean that they should expect to be ambushed, harassed and stalked purely because people want to make them look bad? Of course not! What these paparazzi are doing, is invading the Human Rights of these celebrities – rights that everyone in our world is entitled to. I believe this is unethical because no one has the right to take away another person's human rights. There are many rights that paparazzi violate, for example, Article twelve of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everybody has the right to privacy. Article 13 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everybody has the right to freedom of movement. Well, everywhere these celebrity targets go, they are followed and every action they take is watched. Many celebrities have been in car chases, often leading back to their home. Vince Vaughn, a very famous film actor, once said, “If an ordinary person parks outside another ordinary person's house for a week, it's considered stalking. If, however, that person is considered newsworthy, it's perfectly legal for paparazzi to do the same thing.” If the paparazzi are invading these celebrities privacy, and making them feel

unsafe, then this is a big violation of their Human Rights. Also, the paparazzi, on many occasions, do not allow these celebrity targets to move willingly and freely, thus violating of their Human Rights. These are only two examples, but out of the 30 Articles of Human Rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, I have counted at least 13 rights that the paparazzi violate with their actions towards celebrities. These paparazzi should definitely have stricter boundaries on their behavior, because no body’s human rights may be violated, even if they are of a higher status than another individual. This kind of behaviour is unethical and needs something done about it.

The reason that paparazzi do make a lot of money from embarrassing pictures of high profile celebrities is because our modern society is unhealthily addicted to celebrity culture and information. The problem of paparazzi being too intrusive is not being properly addressed or legalised because our society craves these kind of photos, and is willing to accept the unethical ways of the paparazzi in order to gain access of these photos. Seeing photos of celebrities in embarrassing situations, or even just ordinary situations that we all experience such as walking the dog or taking out the rubbish, gives a sense of comfort to our society, in the way of feeling like we are similar to these high profile celebrities. Our obsession is fuelled by the idea that we can live like celebrities, and achieve what they have. Everywhere we go, we see celebrities printed on the front of newspapers and magazines, in advertisements and all over social media feeds. Celebrities are everywhere and there is no way to escape them, which just reinforces the idea that the risky lengths that paparazzi go to take pictures and satisfy our celebrity obsessed society is okay. Serious issues, for example bad economy and climate change, have been taken over by unnecessary articles such what Kim Kardashian's hand bag is made of and whether Harry Styles is going to get another tattoo. Our modern society needs to understand that this addiction to celebrity culture is unethical and unhealthy, as are the ways the paparazzi are getting this information and photos for us. If we started to value serious issues, and not glossed up stars, the paparazzi would not have a reason to be intrusive towards these celebrities. In conclusion, the interdependent relationship between the paparazzi and society is an endless cycle that needs to be broken. The paparazzi and media provide the photos and information, while society craves it, resulting in a cycle of unethical actions including stalking, risks and unhealthy obsessions.

As paparazzi themselves have never been in the same situation that they are forcing on celebrities, they do not fully understand the emotional damage and fear they cause, which needs to change. The actions and ways of the paparazzi could easily be altered to become ethical, which is why I believe their behaviour is so unnecessary. For example, if the celebrity is on the red carpet, or performing at a concert then I believe it is ethical to take pictures of them. However, the car chases, waiting outside houses and following celebrities from destination to destination is highly unethical and stalkerish. Paparazzi capture pictures of celebrities inside their homes by climbing up fences, and looking through windows. This is a major invasion of their privacy, and should not be tolerated by these high profile celebrities. As well as this, there should be a law that protects celebrity figures from having their pictures used in newspapers, magazines and on social media without their permission. We are not allowed to post a photo of an ordinary person without their permission, so I believe the same rule should be applied to celebrity figures, no matter how newsworthy they are. Lastly, the paparazzi harassment and abuse, including offensive language, directed towards celebrities is highly unethical and disrespectful, and therefore should be enforced to stop. I strongly believe that paparazzi need to understand that celebrities are people too, and therefore should not be treated as anything less than that. Simple changes like this will result in a much more ethical society, will give comfort to celebrities and will allow us to pay attention to the real world issues instead of being unnecessarily addicted to celebrity culture and information.

In conclusion, I believe that the paparazzi need to have stricter boundaries, and treat celebrities as human beings, not anything less than that. The abuse, both physical and verbal, needs to be stopped as it is emotionally and physically unethical. As well as this, the high level of harassment and stalking needs to have more lawful control, as these celebrity targets’ lives are being strongly affected by it. Lastly, the Human Rights of these celebrities need a high level of respect, and should not be disregarded as if they do not exist. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social

origin, property, birth or other status.” Which I strongly believe needs to be respected and understood by the paparazzi, as they violate these rights with their unethical actions. Our society is unhealthily addicted to celebrity culture and information, which is problem that needs to be addressed in order to live in an ethical society with no intrusive and abusive paparazzi. Overall, I believe the actions of the paparazzi are unethical, and it is wrong that our society still expects this unethical behaviour to continue in order to fuel the celebrity addiction we have grown to have....