Media matters: No hidden agenda in Brangelina coverage

Media organisations cover celeb news because people are interested in it, writes Colette Sexton

Tired of celbrity stories? Then stop reading... Pic: Getty

People are inherently nosey. We want to know about other people’s lives, whether it is Mary and Jim next door, the new person in the office with the suspiciously vague answers about their weekend, or Hollywood celebrities we have never, and will never, meet.

Before this new-fangled internet creation, the celebrity obsession was mainly contained to the gossip pages and magazines. But now, we can follow celebrities online, find out what causes they support, where they bought their shoes, and what they are having for lunch. A simple tweet from a Hollywood type can lead to thousands of retweets and dozens of articles. Why? Because, whether they love or hate celebrities, people still want to read about them.

Last Tuesday, the news that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were divorcing broke. Forget the US elections, the Brexit fall-out, and the possibility of every Irish transport worker and their mother going on strike, the celebrity couple instantly became the story of the week.

The next day, the Hollywood pair were featured across the front pages ofThe Irish Times, Irish Daily Mail, Irish Independent, andThe Irish Sun.The Guardian, The New York Times, even theWall Street Journal, ran stories on the divorce of Jolie and Pitt. We rana profile of Brangelina in theSunday Business Post at the weekend. (We also joked about doing a listicle for businesspost.ie, like 8 Ways Your Business Can Profit From Brangelina's Breakup or 9 Ways to Protect Your Assets in Case Your Partner Wants A Hollywood Divorce, but we decided not to cross that line.)

Readers are very good at complaining about what media outlets cover, so naturally, the online articles about the famous duo attracted complaints of “who cares” and “is this news?”

Well, news is something that is new, significant and about people. So yes, it is news. Just like something that comes out of a war-torn country or a politician's mouth can also be news – albeit a very different type of news.

Media outlets deliver what they think their readers will be interested in. In fact, we’re arguably in a time where journalists are responding to their readers needs and wants more than ever, as they can actually see which articles are most popular through digital analytics.

We’re not sitting around the newsroom with evil smiles on faces, stroking white cats on our laps and laughing: “Another major bombing in the Middle East, but let’s write a story about the Great British Bake Off instead.”

Last Friday, three days after the news had broken, the most read story on telegraph.co.uk was still “Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt divorce: FBI investigate incident on flight from France after actor allegedly 'got drunk and went wild”.

I spoke to a reporter for a news website in Ireland recently, and made a joke about the site’s apparent obsession with a particular z-list Irish celebrity. He looked at me, and said in desperation: “We hate writing this stuff, but people just keep clicking on it. Stop clicking!”

So there you have it folks. Sick of Brangelina and Hiddleswift? Couldn’t give a fiddlers’ if Jennifer Aniston is pregnant or not? Don’t care if the Kardashians are renovating a new home? There is a simple solution – stop reading the articles.

Otherwise, sit back and use them as a way of unwinding. There is something nice about knowing that Hollywood movie stars with impeccable bone structure can get dumped too.

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