People power that's brought Katie down
POOR Jordan/Katie Price. She couldn’t have tried harder or been braver in her endless bushtucker trials on I’m a Celebrity Get Me out of Here but like sharks scenting blood, a contingent of viewers – the sadistic contingent – pursued her relentlessly.
I suppose it might have been a judgment on her erratic behaviour since separating from Peter Andre but I sense a
new, deeper force is at work. Something has changed in the relationship between public and programmes
such as this. It’s the viewers who are now in charge, not the producers.
And the viewers know it. Judy says it’s to do with the internet; mass blogs and twitters can have almost instantaneous impact in loosely co-ordinated campaigns. People realise that they can control events.
So it was with Katie; viewers knew that if they co-ordinated, they could bring her down. So they did. Just because they could. Of course, it’s just a celeb reality show, isn’t it? And Jordan’s a couple of hundred thousand pounds better off after it, isn’t she?
Yes, and yes. But something profound is happening to our society. Interactive television and the internet is putting people power growingly in the ascendant.
Let’s hope that somewhere down the line it doesn’t mutate into lynch law.