What is news today?

As a young journalism student, I learned the values of news under direction of Ms. Sally Turner. We learned six things that makes something in public discourse newsworthy.

One of those items was the person involved in the story. For example, nearly everything Barack Obama does is considered newsworthy because he is the President of the United States.

It seems that line has become blurred today.

I have no problem with people like Paris Hilton or Kate Gosselin getting news coverage. I would just prefer it be in their own venue.

I don't enjoy seemingly continuous celebrity coverage on places like CNN.

The news of Tiger Woods' return to golf after his martial issues is newsworthy. However, I don't think it deserved enough coverage to out-shadow the death of the Polish president. Even though thats precisely what it did.

Admittedly, I have my moments in which I want to escape into celebrity news. That is what I consider that type of information: escapism. I don't base my life on who wore what or who is dating whom. It can just be fun sometimes.

When seeking out the information, I turn to E! News or what not.

However, I do not turn to CNN to find out this information. Yet, that is what is happening more and more.

Remember what happened when Micheal Jackson died?

I completely understand giving him coverage. He was, after all, the King of Pop. No other person could match his contributions to the art in the modern day. But after respects were paid, coverage couldn't seem to cease. Hard news journalists repeated the same information for a week straight with nothing new to report. This seemed to blur the lines of newsworthy and not newsworthy.

I can't help but wonder: Why such the obsession with celebritydom?

Many reports have come out saying that such obsession is bad for us, psychologically. It supports physical ideals that are unattainable, thus bad body images. It distracts us from taking care of our lively problems. It can promote debt to keep up with an image.

Those are just a few of the things I remember reading about obsession with celebritydom.

What do you think about what is news? What do you think about celebrities?