Real people, real issues deserve media focus

Whenever I check my cellphone for news, I'm greeted by entertainment news promos: One celebrity is having an extramarital affair while another faces a divorce. Sometimes these promos are hidden under the cover of "social news" in order to attract more clicks.

In the late 1800s, US newspapers were using so much pulp news to amuse, and thus attract more readers that their style came to be known as "yellow journalism". Today, Chinese media outlets seem to be doing the same. A pan-entertainment trend has been sweeping across social networks and media outlets, and it further intensified in 2016.

Some might argue amusement and entertainment news is a trend today because that is what most people want. True, readers and viewers fond of entertainment news are to partly blame for the trend, but the fact is, the pan-entertainment section takes up so much space on screen that even those looking for serious news stories have difficulty finding them.