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?
