For my essay I need to discuss America's obsession with violence and media based on a short (150-200 word) article and 'Swan Song' by Chuck Palahniuk.
Essentially the article is saying how in order to make the front page, a person needs to use a dramatic/graphic headline (the example he uses is saying how the article with the headline 'father cuts son's throat in baseball argument' was on the inside page and would only make the front page if he killed 3 sons with a baseball bat instead of a knife).
'Swan Song' is about this journalist whose vet used to be a childhood actor. The journalist wants to write an article on his vet, but his boss won't let him because it's not as interesting as finding a childhood actor/actress dead/doing drugs/in rehab. In order to get a good story then, the journalist frames the actor by stashing kiddie porn, getting him drunk, and murdering him (framing it as suicide) and then his boss lets him write the story.
But why do they find it so entertaining? Is it because they want something to distract them from things going on in their own life? Or something else?