Celebrity posts offer food for thought

ON TUESDAY, actress Zanilia Zhao posted a photo of her marriage certificate on her micro blog. Her post received more than 600,000 "likes" within 10 minutes, with the micro blog being forwarded 100,000 times and commented on another 100,000 times. Half an hour later, the server hosting her Sina micro blog failed and many of those wishing to comment found they could not do so until a dozen minutes later. China Daily writer Zhang Zhouxiang comments:

News about a star is always eye-catching. News about celebrities always gets the lion's share of attention on social media. However, it is wrong to think entertainment news is incompatible with serious, positive news.

Specifically, Zhao used the words "official release" to introduce the news, and many State-run media outlets, even People's Daily, picked up on it and used the two words to get more viewers. On its official WeChat public account, People's Daily issued an article with the title "Look at our official release", echoing the text used to announce the successful testing of China's first atomic bomb on Oct 16, 1964. The exact reading record of the article remains unknown, but it received more than 100,000 "likes".

That's an example of how popularity of celebrity posts can be translated for more serious news.

Prejudice against showbiz stories by those in the traditional media is outdated. On the contrary, as Zhao's post shows, their high popularity can well be used by serious media outlets to spread positive news and promote the desired values for society.