Celebrity – The Orbital

7Jun

By Izzy SwansonNo Comments

Opinion

President Celebrity

At January’s Golden Globes, a new potential presidential candidate was born: Oprah Winfrey. In her acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille award, she projected a message of solidarity and hope addressed to women across the world who have experienced sexual abuse and inequality. Raised by a single mother in poverty, Oprah’s rise from years of sexual abuse as a child to becoming the richest self-made woman in America, is a deeply inspirational story. Her influence on the American public, initially stemming from The Oprah Winfrey Show, which embedded topics such as racism, LGBT awareness and gun control into a national discourse, left Rod Blagojevich, Governor of Illinois, to suggest that she was ‘the most instrumental person in electing Barack Obama president’. With her charitable dona...

I’m A Celebrity: An Experience Regretted

On the 7th December, a most undesirable event befell me. I had the misfortune of seeing, for the first time, the abomination that is I’m A Celebrity. It so happened to be the final, which, helpfully or unhelpfully, provided a recap of the whole series - meaning I was presented not only with the most recent trials, such as the consumption of unappetising parts of both camel and ostrich, but with a horrific past instance of a contestant drinking deer’s blood. I had heard a great deal about this show prior to seeing it, of course. It is extremely difficult to avoid, what with the painful media focus on bikini bodies and jungle flirtations, and the fact that it seems to dominate headlines throughout the few weeks of its run. What I had not realised, however, was the sheer depravity of it. D...

The Meaning of News

All day, every day, our lives are permeated by facts and knowledge of others than ourselves. We spend hours of our time checking Twitter and Facebook, updating, liking and reading about other people’s lives. But how much of what actually matters do we absorb? How many young people prefer to spend their time online checking up on celebrities and football, on films and music, and yet barely notice anything of significance that appears on their feed. I am not saying that as young people we should be disregarding these things which make essential elements of our culture, but surely there should be a more even balance? I feel that many of my peers care too little about what is happening in the wider world, as they remain ignorant towards the world around them. Occasionally, events can filter...