Bieberizing the news
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- Created on Wednesday, 03 November 2010 03:15
Photo: An INK reporter disguised as Justin Bieber.
by Amanda-Lynn Williams
Here in Regina, unless you lived under a rock, there was no way you missed the fact that Justin Bieber was playing a concert.
I stand corrected, unless you had earplugs and lived under a rock in an abandoned farmhouse, you might have gotten away with not hearing about it...but not likely.
Ever since the concert’s announcement back in early June, Bieber’s face was plastered all over the Queen’s City. The doors were wide open for an onslaught of promotional plugs featuring the doe-eyed, mop topped teen icon.
Media coverage concerning the pop star was no different.
In fact, the coverage was so extensive during the Bieber craze that mainstream news was put on the back burner.
Newsworthy stories that would (and should) have made headlines during Bieber mania were fighting for attention on the front pages of the Regina Leader Post- that is if the stories appeared in the first few pages at all.
Immediately following the pop star’s western tour announcement on June 5, the Leader Post provided extensive coverage of Bieber-mania as it began to take hold of the city. ‘Get ready for Bieber fever’ the LP touted.
If you looked closely at the front cover that day, you might have seen a squishy little sidebar featuring Saskatchewan job reviews and employment rates. You may also have learned that despite having the lowest unemployment rate in Canada, Regina’s job increases are starting to slow down as there are more people arriving in our city than we have jobs available.
Somewhere towards the bottom of the page there was (something?) about a 17-year-old skateboarder fatally injured.
Following the announcement and leading up to the concert on September 16, the pop star’s face had taken precedence on the front of the LP on six different occasions. In the meantime, any stories about the trials of Edward Poon, Dustin LaFortune or about whats-that-stuff-worth-billions-that-we-provide-to-a-third-of-the-world...potash…had to ‘Eenie Meenie’ their way over to page A4.
Bieber’s most memorable LP appearance was the day following the concert. In huge block letters the headline read: ‘JUSTIN BIEBER. REGINA, SASKATCHEWAN, SEPTEMBER 16TH, 2010’. That wasn’t WWII ending, or Pearl Harbour being bombed. Justin Bieber came to Regina.
The headline was supported by a huge close-up of Bieber and his entire set list.
Again a miniscule sidebar to the left of the pop star’s gleaming picture... ‘RCMP admits to fatal 9-1-1 error’. An error on the part of the Prince Albert RCMP that left one woman dead and left another woman and her two sons stranded in a car for a week without food or water.
Getting down to brass tacks here, I realize that a Justin Bieber concert is a big event here in the QueenCity. Even though I’m not a Bieber fan personally, I understand the Bieber-mania to some degree. I was 13 once too. But the LP is not over-run with thirteen year olds. There is no troupe of boy-crazed teenage girls deciding what news will make the front page.
I agree that big names like Bieber and the Rolling Stones help put our modest city on the map but do we really suffer ‘little city syndrome’ to such a degree that we let our most relevant issues fall by the star-studded wayside?
After the concert Bieber appeared on the cover of the LP on several other occasions.
I stopped keeping track on October 19 (two months after the concert) when one of the main stories on the front page of the LP reported ‘Not even the RCMP can escape Bieber fever.’ Apparently their chances of escape are about as good as those women left on the side of the road for a week.
Come on Regina, we are better than this.
Let’s make real news a priority and quit leaving it to Bieber.
Photo provided by Kim Elachuk