Why do the media make a big deal about princess Diana but not for mother Teresa of Calcutta?

Question

Why do the media make a big deal about princess Diana but not for mother Teresa of Calcutta?

Answer 1

Diana,Princess of Wales was photogenic.People are interested in glamour and glitz. Mother Terese was a very committed woman;she was dedicated to her charities but her simple lifestyle wasn't as gossip-worthy.

Mother Terese came to my high school to recruit help;she was tiny,intense and very focused on getting the poor the help that they needed.She won accolades for her work,but not as much media interest.

Mother Terese died at an advanced age;her life was well-lived and fulfilled. Diana died tragically;her life was cut short leaving people to wonder what if?

Answer 2

The media are in the business of selling advertising. They are highly accomplished story tellers, not truth tellers. To sell advertising, they must tell stories which engender controversy.

Mother Teresa; wrinkly little Romanian nun who spent a saintly life looking after poor children in an Indian city. And then she died. One story. End of story.

No tension. No controversy. No surprise - she was quite elderly. No ongoing story.

Diana was... Diana is an "Eminence Gris" on an ongoing soap opera. Pretty Queen-to-be, cut down in the Prime of her life. Conspiracy. Angry people. Accusation. Conflict. The Rise of the Humble. The Fall of the Mighty. Revenge. Keeping faith with the Dead. Star-crossed Lovers. Royalty & Servants. An Aristocrat with a heart (and a great pair of legs). Intrigue, Lies, and Treachery. Foreigners, landmines, & AIDS.

The way they tell it, she was as saintly as Mother Teresa, only tall, blonde, in her 30s, single & available, photogenic, well-connected, and wearing a ball gown.

Plus reviving the ongoing inter-generational Royal Saga; the future King, with his mothers looks, who will at some point want to know who killed her. Eat your heart out William Shakespeare.

Loads of stories, including ongoing ones. It has everything, and she will sell advertising for decades to come.

Our species thinks in stories, and sadly, simple Saintliness doesn't come close to meeting our insatiable thirst for narrative.

Answer 3

I've heard plenty about Mother Teresa before and since she died. She had to be one of the most publicized women on the planet.

Answer 4

I am as perplexed as you are. The only reason i could see is Princess Diana won the popularity contest. I thought it was sad that she died the way she ( Diana) did, but wasn't a fan of hers. I didn't empathize with her nor want to be her in anyway, like so many women did .

Answer 5

mother teresa was not part of the control machiene

that we call government

Answer 6

Heavens' nose.

Answer 7

I think Mother Theresa of Calcutta had a certain amount of interest shown in her and her work during her lifetime.  However, she was not a beautiful, glamorous, royal princess, so naturally she was not such an object of excitement.  princess Diana sold newspapers in a way that Mother Theresa did not.

Answer 8

There's not much glamor in the poor in Calcutta.  Sad.

Answer 9

Princess Diana died tragically young. Mother theresa lived a long and fulfilling life. She did get her share of media attention.

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  Why wold you be suprised by this? People admire Mother Theresa and her work, but most people can't imagine being her. Billions of people (mostly women) felt deep empathy of for Diana.

Answer 10

Because they are Liberal, and Liberals hate the Catholic church.

Answer 11

Pity, isn't it?  They passed away within days of each other, and Mother Teresa was barely noticed by the media and public at large, because of the furor.  She was much the bigger person, and though I'm not Catholic, and don't actually believe in Saints and all that, I beleive Mother Teresa was one of the only people of our times who should have been given such an honor.

Maybe part of her glory lies in the fact that she has been more ignored.  She probably would have preferred it, anyway.

Answer 12

Diana was known as the "people's princess": she was an ordinary person who cared about things other than tea and polo. people felt as if they could finally connect to the Royal family.

Mother Teresa was remembered for her life and her death was not momentous, as Diana's was. A member of the royal family was killed, her death riddled with scandal. Mother Teresa's death came when she was old enough that there wasn't anything important about it. The most popular person in the Royal family was untimely killed.