The End Is Still Near: The Eternal Apocalypse of the Tabloids

Summary

It is always the end of the world for the tabloids. In their bizarre and sensational pages, there has always been found place for reporting occult phenomena, miracles, acts of God, and fiery prophecies of the end of the world. ‘Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Photographed in Arizona’ we read in a typical headline from December 1996, reminding us that the year, and perhaps everything else, was drawing to a close (fig. 1). But as the year 2000 approached, the amount of space devoted to end time subjects increased to the point that we were confronted by prophetic headlines every week at the supermarket checkout counter. Even those who never looked past the cover, and who wouldn't dream of buying the paper, were influenced by the heightened noise level of 150-point type screaming imminent doom. In 1998 and 1999, religious themes surrounding the end of the world grew to constitute the primary subject of a certain class of supermarket tabloid newspapers, in particular Weekly World News and Sun. Although the tabloids promoted a wide variety of end times scenarios and a series of ever-receding dates for the end of the world, there was a distinct focus on the possibilities for 1 January, 2000, as the climactic event.

The popular weekly newspapers made money hyping the change of the millennium, both creating and fulfilling the desire for excitement.