The Hollywood writers strike, the iPhone and the "hyper-tabloidization" of television news are among the American Film Institute's "Moments of Significance" for 2007.

America's cultural obsession with scandal reached new heights (lows?) in 2007, with coverage of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears often eclipsing traditional news on the Iraq war, the economy and other topics of international scale. AFI says websites such as TMZ.com and PerezHilton.com encourage a brigade of "citizen paparazzi" to "tear down pop idols."