Today's Word—Bloodthirsty Mosquitoes

Media Voyeurism:

“The paparazzi, a name created by Federico Fellini for a character in the film La Dolce Vita, are the bloodthirsty mosquitoes on the front lines of our gossip wars. But someone publishes the images they capture. The resulting buzz attracts not just the tabloids and cable news shows, but the gossipy sections that turn the mainstream into the meanstream media. As purveyors or consumers of such news, we are all complicit.”
—Roy Peter Clark, senior scholar, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, 2008 (http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=135566)