World wide web of lies traps celebs

Oh my god you guys! Justin Bieber is totally dead! It’s true! I read it online.

I also read that Taylor Lautner, Natalie Portman, George Clooney and basically every other celebrity has recently died in freak accidents, horrible crimes or mournful suicides. It seems that pop culture has taken our obsession with two of life’s biggest mysteries — death and fame — and created a new monster: celebrity death hoaxes.

Perhaps it is our need to hold on to the magic of our idols in any way we can after their deaths that has led us to the current state of affairs on the Internet. It is a new trend of sorts that leaves many celebrities wondering if today is the day they will be killed off by some kid in Nebraska looking to play a trick on his friends. People are using social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as supposedly reputable online news forums like CNN’s iReport, to spread rumors of fake celebrity deaths, and they are becoming increasingly frequent.

Spreading fake rumors of celebrity deaths seems to give the gossips a momentary taste of power. Zach Braff fell victim to the trend last October when a fake CNN page announced the actor’s untimely demise. Shortly after, news of Braff’s passing was all over Twitter, causing him to post a YouTube response to dispel the rumor. Though perhaps posting a fake celebrity death announcement could create the same thrill of wrongdoing arsonists feel, but it is a dangerous game to play. Not all of the rumors are dispelled quickly enough to prevent the star’s friends, family and fans from becoming scared and hurt.

Celebrities will always be chased by paparazzi, approached for autographs in public and have to hire

publicists to deny their wrongdoings. Now, it seems they will also have to make more frequent appearances to ward off fans’ fears of their untimely departure. But hey, there is an upside — once you have been declared dead on the Internet, you really know you’ve made it.

The real concern, then, is not about the well-being of celebrities. It is about those individuals who are abusing the power of the web to spread false fear into the hearts of teen girls and Perez Hilton devotees, as well as those who ignorantly fall victim to the bloggers’ lies.

The concept of news in our generation has been distorted and manipulated to serve those people who wish to play practical jokes on attractively large audiences. The Internet is not at all trustworthy — anything posted

online has to be triple-checked for accuracy, and even then many tricksters have become hardened enough to

create a false trail of reference sites to support their absurd claims. CNN’s site allows anyone to post content online as a purported means of spreading news quickly — to be fair, iReport was the first to post cell phone videos of the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007. The combination of accurate news and cleverly disguised fabrications, however, is messy and confusing, and it ultimately points to a future of citizen-run news sites lacking the credibility of a reliable source.

The Internet provides the perfect playground for those who wish to feels a false sense of power shrouded in anonymity. After all, anyone on the Internet can have a voice, and people will listen. But if the Internet’s ability to spread news quickly and effectively is exploited to cause distress over the deaths of celebrities, it seems pertinent to

wonder how the web will be misused next.

Amy Baack is a senior majoring in cinema-television production.