This is the way it has been happening for a while now. Random Big Brother Naija housemate in a bid to curry favour and controversy denies knowing popular Nigerian musician. This becomes news.
Popular musician now attacks Big Brother housemate for having the effrontery to know him. This of course becomes news.
Big Brother housemate, now freshly evicted and penitent, goes on a media tour, apologising for claiming to not know popular Nigerian musician. Also, this becomes news.
Finally, to complete the odious circle, popular Nigerian musician acknowledges apology and tells Big Brother housemate to go and sin no more. Naturally this makes the news as well.
This is where we are at. Where the most mundane and meaningless happenings are somehow transformed into something seen as newsworthy. In the drive for clicks and views, we have forgotten, what really matters or what should really matter.
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Granted, the Big Brother show is the biggest show on television and the housemates are by extension currently dwelling in their 15 minutes of fame. But to reduce news gathering to just random comments on an Instagram page is just lazy and downright stupid.
In a world where increasingly ‘fake’ news is becoming more than buzzword, we, and by we I mean the media, have resorted to peddling snakeskin oil.
I know it’s a common phenomenon across the world media. Famous rapper’s wife sneezes and it becomes headline news. Yes, I get it. That doesn’t mean it has to be so.
There is a place for celebrity journalism in the media ecosystem, no matter how repulsive some might find it. But it is not enough any more to just report what our favourite celebs are up to anymore. Mainly because they, those formerly known as readers, can usually get that information straight from the horses mouth.
We should not only report it as it happens, when it happens, we go and further and elevate the conversation. Why is our favorite celeb acting a fool for all to see? Why we shouldn’t believe them when they say their bags/shoes/cars/houses cost as much as they say? We need to do more than just parroting them and going a bit further in our search for news.
If we don’t, this thing we are calling entertainment journalism will soon die. And we would all be the worse for it. Celebs, reporters, readers; all
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