Recently, a sex photos scandal shocked the Hong Kong entertainment industry. Actor Edison Chen had others repair his computer; however, lots of sex photos which he took with other female celebrities were spread on-line. Yesterday, Edison Chen came back to Hong Kong and held a press conference to admit his fault and apologized to the society. However, is that all his fault? And what kind of role does media play in this event?
The scandal began from Chen's sending his laptop computer to be repair. His computer contained almost 1,300 photos of he and many female Chinese celebrities, and after his repairing, those pictures were either sending by email or posting on-line. It caused many female celebrities' damage because they either have got married, engaged, or were famous for their pure image. After those sex photo were published, their family or husbands were mad at them; also, their business and public image were harmed. Also, since the scandal broke out, everybody blamed Edison Chen who went to America and Canada to dodge the media, and sympathized with those female celebrities and their family.
Edison did do something wrong which was not face to the public. However, is that right to impute all the fault to him? He did have special sex habits to take picture after or before sex; but those pictures should be private and self-using, who make them be published? Is Edison Chen? No, it was done by others.
After the incident, the police is trying to capture the origin of spreading the photos;yet, whenever they announced that they solved the criminal case, there are more pictures put on-line and spread to China and Taiwan. And at the same time, what are the media doing? Except reporting the details of the case, most of them are trying to find out "Who was the next female celebrity put on-line?"
Hong Kong's "paparazzi culture" has a long history, which focus on the sensational, sexual, picture of nude people or bodies, and the privacy of the celebrities. However, in these year, this kind of culture was wide-spread to Taiwan and China.
Edison Chen apologized for his fault and failed to be a model of youth. Retrieved from CNN website.
After the event, it is sad that there were only few media mention about the security of computer using, others put more attention on the affair. Is this kind of stories can be called news? Who care about it? If you though there are nobody care about that, you may be wrong. Take Taiwan's Apple Daily originated from Hong Kong for example. It inherited the sensation from Hong Kong's Apple Daily, and while it first come to Taiwan, many people blamed them for their sensational coverages. However, according to the survey done by AC Nelson, they has more than 16% audience rate, which is the best one in Taiwan. The result showed that people's "desire of peep" need to be satisfied, and they make their choice by choosing to see that kind of news. Also, after Apple Daily invaded into Taiwan, the "main media" are all changing their style to cater to the publics' tastes and report the same way as Apple Daily. We are sometimes taught that "media's responsibility is to satisfy the audience," but is it right anytime?
I didn't know that is there any similar situations in western media, but it is a current serious problem in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
And, is that the end of the sex photo scandal? I have no idea, and maybe one day some other media find other pictures unpublished...or others computer be hacked... Who knows?
Hong Kong's tabloid industry has always reveled in stories like this. Their fascination extends to just about any public figure, from celebrities like in this scandal (one of whom was stalked in her dressing room by a photographer for a cover story some time before this incident)to public figures like social activist and Legislator "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-Hung. I think one of the reasons behind the intense stalking of celebrities is the fact that these people, as products, are shoved down the throats of the pubclic there, with their images screaming out from every possible media, from the hundreds of poster sized adboards to being emblazoned across the side of double decker buses,and playing on huge downtown TV screens.(and in the case of female stars, they're often scantily dressed) The same names tend to dominate not only both music and film, but also fashion. In my opinion what made this story an even bigger cash cow than it was already going to be was the initial attempt to lie to the public, with representatives for all parties involved claiming the pictures were fake. yet still aggressively prosecuting suspects, and having the police tell citizens that they would be criminals for accessing or sharing the pictures. The overall impression of their initial reaction seemed to generally insult the intelligence of the public, which increased the already high level of coverage in the media. The incoherence of their PR response, and the timing of Chen's subsequent apology and "indefinite retirement to pursue charity projects" all make the parties involved look insincere in their responses. Instead of all the lying and preaching about the need to be a "role model" (What kind of role model was Edison Chen to begin with? He hasn't gone to college, despite having the money and connections to do whatever he wants and hasn't ever done anything that wasn't arranged for him by his family connections.)
Maybe in 50 years Hong Kong culture will have changed to the point that such a scandal wouldn't end, but launch the careers of talentless people (i.e Paris Hilton)
In any case, I think this will be a media incident that won't be forgotten soon in East-Asia.