Chapter 1: What reflections are shared about Mel Schilling's passing?
Hello and welcome to an episode of this podcast that I'm going to be honest, I haven't really planned and I'm not sure where this will go. But I suppose I just wanted to come on and speak a little bit more about Mel, who is obviously someone who is on most of our minds today, I assume.
And last night, as you probably heard in the pod that I put out at like 3am, I spent a few hours going through a lot of the interviews she's done over the last couple of years, especially since finding out she had cancer. And I kind of built them into like a little tribute telling her story of the last couple of years and the things she's learned about herself and like her final messages.
And I suppose that's what I want to chat a little bit more about in this episode, because I was thinking about speaking in that pod at 3 a.m., but I hadn't really formulated anything. what I wanted to say. And I kind of liked the idea of just having that as Mel in Mel's words, like without me.
But yeah, with this one, I suppose I've just been thinking a lot today, like what can we take from this sad news? Like what can we learn? What, was there? What was Mel's final kind of messages? And I think the reason I want to do this as well is because I personally hate what happens in the media after any celebrity or public figure passes.
Chapter 2: What final messages did Mel Schilling convey during her battle with cancer?
And I say this because having previously been a part of it when I did work in the tabloid several years ago. And I've seen time and time again how essentially when news breaks that someone has passed away, all media, it's then just a race between them of like who can get an article up fastest, who can get it on socials the quickest to get the engagement.
And then it's almost like a battle amongst themselves of who can monetize public grief and intrigue like the quickest, with as many articles as they can possibly squeeze out of the situation.
And as they do that, it starts to feel quite exploitative and everything quickly becomes sensationalized to the point that, to me at least, it feels like it becomes less about the actual person who has passed and more about how can news outlets just find new ways to keep people clicking. And every celebrity death is the same. And again, I say this having worked at these outlets.
It starts with, you know, the breaking news of this person has passed at this time on this day. And then there's the follower particles with like tributes from those closest to them. Then these tributes from people who maybe vaguely knew them, but reached out to journalists directly just to get,
their name in articles and then you get those who have like briefly crossed paths with whoever's passed away who are then spamming socials you know with their one picture with them from eight years ago and again it starts to feel just less about paying respects and the actual person who's passed away and more just like this free-for-all for people to get
clicks and ad revenue and Instagram likes and and I even acknowledge the hypocrisy of me here on a podcast about to get clicks from the same situation and you know at the same time as this all happens the media and you'll see it's probably already started I haven't really been online much today but you'll see new headlines which are always like they're haunting final words or see their last pictures as you know they dig out whenever the last time they were popped and then
You know, in a few days, I assume we're going to see paparazzi out trying to get pictures of maybe Mel's husband and daughter or maybe John Aiken or just anyone she was close to, to capture them like grieving and then sell their visible grief to the newspapers, magazines, anyone who will pay for it. And then it just keeps going until the funeral.
And that just becomes like a media frenzy a lot of the time. And... Yeah, I don't know. As I said, it does all make me feel a bit uneasy.
And maybe I'm just being cynical here again because I've worked in that world and know that most of the time the people writing these articles, the editors pushing for more articles on whatever the latest revelation is from this person dying, they actually don't care themselves personally. They just want to make money through ad revenue.
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Chapter 3: How does the media's portrayal of celebrity deaths affect public perception?
We're all thinking about this. We're all thinking about our own lives. We're all thinking about the people we've lost. And there's so much to say, but also there's not much to say other than it's just sad.
And that was kind of the essence of the call with my mum as I kind of was telling her points, I suppose I've touched on in this part, about the things I'm going to take away from this just sad situation. As always, thank you for listening and have a nice day, guys. See ya.
Alright, son, you okay?
Yeah, wait, is that... Oh, you turned the telly down in the background.
Right, well, it's marriage at first sight, so just a minute.
Oh, it's nice of you doing your homework as the UK correspondent.
Yeah, go on.
Well, we were meant to actually do the record asking you thoughts, but then I suppose the news overnight kind of changes that a bit today, at least.
Oh, yeah. Oh, it's so sad. And she seems such a lovely person.
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