A person who enters public life is necessarily forced to surrender some degree of personal privacy.

A person who enters public life is necessarily forced to surrender some degree of personal privacy.

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In the drastically changing field of technology of today, it is very hard for public figures to maintain privacy. In grocery stores, the internet, television, radio and other mainstream media feed the public’s appetite for celebrity gossip. In every country there are film industries such as Hollywood and Bollywood where film stars lived depend on luring fans to earn a living and most importantly prestige, fame and an image for the people. However, not all people who gain public attention in the media are forced to surrender their personal privacy.

First consider a situation in which a person entering public life will be forced to surrender their personal privacy in order to exist. The US houses Hollywood as the largest film industry  in the world. Hollywood has had many famous movie stars over the past few decades who have been under the public eye in many occasions. For example, the renowned King of Pop, Michael Jackson started out his lucrative career in the Jackson 5 band. Eventually in the 1980s he started his own solo career and began to revolutionize the world of pop music and dance by introducing unique choreography, music style and vocal skills. Michael Jackson became world number 1 in 1984 with the all time hits such as , “Thriller , Don’t Stop till you get enough and Black or White. Both of these singles charted number. His new role as the King of Pop, required him to sacrifice his personal life and privacy in order to gain global fame and support his fans . By sacrificing his personal life he has left us with a gold standard and legacy in the pop music industry that can never be replaced. Another example, is Britney Spears who was nicknamed the Queen of Pop in the mid 1990s  also revolutionized pop music industry by creating a unique style of singing and choreography that is still famous today. She is known have to started the modern idea of sex appeal and has transformed the female image throughout world by establishing a standard for all women. Thus MJ and Britney Spears are both renowned examples of famous individuals who had to give up privacy in order to gain and preserve their fame.

In contrast, there are situations in which a person entering public life does not have surrender their personal privacy in order to exist. For example, the recent 2010 CNN Heroes Aki Ra and Narayanan Krishnan are ordinary people who gained fame for their humanitarian service. Aki Ra, is a former Cambodian soldier of the notorious Khmer Rouge. The Khemr Rogue was responsible for a totalitarian government that forced everyone into agrarian labor with communist ideal thus killing thousands of civilians. In addition to starving them, soldiers such as Aki Ra  were trained to fight in combat by shooting innocent civilians and plant thousands of land mines to prevent civilians from escaping. Since the days after the Khemr Rogue, landmines has been a major problem in Cambodia taking people’s lives, paralyzing them and making them immobile.  Aki Ra is known to many in Camboadia and the world for removing thousands of landmines through his self motivated organization that he had  planted himself. He is also known to have helped victims of landmines lead new lives by giving them shelter, a place to emotionally heal and live happy lives. However, despite media attention through CNN his personal life is still kept private, and only his humanitarian service is shown to the world. Thus Aki Ra is an example of a person gaining a public image as a hero but not sacrificing his privacy to survive.

All in all it is circumstantial as to when a person entering public life will have to sacrifice personal privacy. If the person has reached the attention of many through mainstream media such as the internet and tv especially in the entertainment industry, then people like MJ and Britney Spears have to sacrifice their lives to survive and earn a living. However, other people like Aki Ra who have become famous through public service and not as appealing to the public eye is not as closely watched by the media. The media might only cover his humanitarian work thus Aki Ra does not have to sacrifice his private life to survive after gaining a public image.