Last week we read an article in the Guardian about a senior News of the World executive accusing Broadsheet papers of “sneering at the working class” by dismissing celebrity exposés as “tabloid tittle-tattle” which isn’t in the public interest.  After going onto say that the phrase ‘tabloid press’ was another way of sneering at the working class, he argued that there was as much as journalistic value in writing about celebrities, as there was politics. Why? Because readers pay the wages of these people in the media spotlight.

Go into any office and you are just as likely to hear people talking about last night’s football or what’s happening on X-Factor as they are to be talking about the current economic crisis in Ireland, or the devastating news of the New Zealand mine blasts.

Popular culture may seem trivial by certain groups in society, but as the stats below show, it does by its nature, reflect what the consensus are interested in – lending validity to the NotW executive.  Nowadays, not just the traditional, but also the online media caters for all tastes and the fact that celebrity issues and their lives are such a big part of our culture just goes to show how relevant his comments are.   (more…)