Culture Club - Are We Getting Replaced By Influencers？

00:00:00.000 an engagement party and fashion fest recap fanfic is booming in Hollywood and our influences

00:00:13.100 taking over red carpets I'm Maggie Zhao and I'm Jasmine Wallace and you're listening to

00:00:18.820 Culture Club where we chat about pop culture current affairs the internet and our lives

00:00:24.420 Today's episode of Culture Club is brought to you by Radical Yes, the Melbourne brand making

00:00:32.760 cool shoes for modern women. We acknowledge that the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people are the 0.98

00:00:38.500 traditional custodians of the land we are on today. We would like to pay our respects to

00:00:43.180 elders past and present. We would also like to celebrate the rich history of First Nations

00:00:49.040 culture and storytelling that we're continually learning from. This always was and always will be

00:00:55.220 Aboriginal land. Well, well, well, one of us had an engagement party this past week

00:01:05.000 and it wasn't me. Surprise! Hard launch on the podcast. No, it was me. If you follow me on

00:01:12.340 Instagram this is no surprise at all um but yeah we had our engagement party last weekend in the

00:01:19.720 40 degree Melbourne heat wave which was kind of iconic obviously climate change very scary and

00:01:26.060 stuff but you know we kind of just had to embrace it couldn't cancel it obviously I mean if people

00:01:31.780 know you in real life for the weeks before that you were like manifesting a sunny Melbourne

00:01:37.460 summer engagement party and you really got that in full swing like you were like yeah I just want

00:01:43.780 like I want some warm weather and then yeah it came out with like a heat wave but it was so much

00:01:50.280 fun yeah so it's just at my a family member's house which we're very very lucky and grateful

00:01:55.500 for when we got engaged and we're thinking about celebrating it we knew it would have

00:01:59.520 have to be done quickly because of the weather turning in Melbourne like honestly from like

00:02:03.520 April it's just so hot and cold and like all over the place rain etc so we're like we have to do

00:02:08.920 this within two months so I was like oh let's just do like a backyard thing like so chill just like

00:02:15.400 get some drinks get some food and of course it never is like that like I was so it was still

00:02:21.540 chill to an extent um but my family and us we put in like a lot of work to make it happen

00:02:27.740 obviously um and I ended up buying like a designer dress I was like I'm gonna spend like a hundred

00:02:36.060 dollars on a dress like something chic something white like just like from a high street store

00:02:41.820 like off the rack whatever ended up spending uh yeah a lot more than that but worth it I felt

00:02:48.540 really pretty and you know you're only a bride tap wood once so I was kind of just trying to

00:02:54.220 embrace that and even with buying food and drinks I was like especially after Christmas and holidays

00:02:59.180 I was like oh my god this is a lot of money but you don't think you know like in a year I'm not

00:03:02.940 going to be like oh I wish I had that extra money in my bank account I'll be like even already I'm

00:03:07.460 like I'm so glad that we're spending time with friends and family and celebrating our love and

00:03:12.880 we just feel so very lucky and Laurie actually got stopped on the street this week by a listener

00:03:19.060 if you're listening please reveal yourself um who said congratulations what happened

00:03:26.280 yeah give the story so he was walking on the street with his mom in melbourne city in the day

00:03:31.720 um because his mom's visiting she came down for the party from scotland

00:03:35.680 and someone just yelled out was like laurie laurie congratulations on your engagement

00:03:42.320 and then he was like thanks like thinking with one of my friends

00:03:46.200 um i mean we are you know part of culture club you're our friend yeah but then he was like oh

00:03:52.380 thanks like he does his friend or whatever and then the person was like no no i just follow and

00:03:57.060 i love culture club and stuff so thank you to that person i'm feeling very loved even out on

00:04:02.800 the street very very lucky and yeah i hope that you know you had fun max i've got some great

00:04:09.200 photos of you dancing and videos of you dancing oh yeah we didn't even see this part right so

00:04:14.320 we went hard as in like we it was a very hot day we were having a lot of fun we dance on the dance

00:04:23.440 floor to the point of almost being sick both of us yeah separately I was like oh my gosh I feel

00:04:29.260 like I might be faint I um was a bit woozy at one stage there was a point this is all thanks to my

00:04:36.400 sister's amazing DJ skills she was literally on the decks yeah and we have some air con on inside

00:04:41.860 but like when you're dancing and jumping around in 40 degrees it doesn't matter if there's air

00:04:45.760 conditioning on so yeah there's a point as well I felt a bit dizzy and faint but again worth it

00:04:50.480 we didn't go as hard as we probably would have if it was normal weather but um it was really fun

00:04:55.180 and that same week I did not go to any fashion festival stuff because I was just so overwhelmed

00:05:01.980 with like making sure everything was in order for the party and making sure I wasn't exhausted

00:05:06.800 especially with the heat wave going on but you were miss fashion festival I feel like you were

00:05:11.640 the 2024 fashion festival queen can you run us through your week as well yeah of course I had

00:05:18.200 such a good week because since being freelance this is the first kind of fashion week fashion

00:05:24.800 festival event season that I've attended on behalf of me almost not necessarily a publication I'm

00:05:30.900 working for and I was very lucky I got to go to the shows on the first four nights of the premium

00:05:37.400 runways which typically look like two shows a night you kind of get there around like six

00:05:44.780 ish or something and then you finish up at like 9 30 and it was so fun I went a little bit extra

00:05:51.860 and I actually booked myself into a hotel for two nights in the city during that just because

00:05:57.100 I live a bit out of the way yeah I know I know I felt really like living it up I felt like I was

00:06:05.120 almost in a different city visiting for a bit as well just because you know a few days I had like

00:06:11.500 various events throughout the like the day so it made sense to just have a good base which was fun

00:06:17.860 I went to pizza pizza pizza four nights in a row so that was wild but my favorite for people who

00:06:25.660 don't live in Melbourne or who might not even know can you explain what pizza pizza pizza is

00:06:30.420 Oh, yes. So it is an American style pizza place in the CBD near Parliament Station. And at the front, it's a small little like takeout window kind of thing. But there is like hidden curtains at the back. So there's like a hidden back room, which you can go down and sit in. And I love it. They do massive by the slice, like slices or whole pies. And I always get the truffle mushroom or the triple cheese.

00:06:57.360 and like you only need one yeah i mean yes like two slices is like a decent it's like a quarter

00:07:03.720 of like a big pie so we love anyway spruiking that place well it's so good but apart from the pizza

00:07:11.840 the fashion was obviously a highlight um during melbourne fashion festival i had such great fun

00:07:18.220 at the shows i think this year it was a real standout like it was very hard to pick a favorite

00:07:23.440 show, I would say. And I also got to work on a piece with our friend, Laura Roschioli for Harper's

00:07:30.480 Bazaar. We covered the merging mob in Fashion Runway, which was such a treat. And we got to

00:07:37.140 interview friend of the pod, Lyra Potter for that and a few other names in the industry. So we'll

00:07:43.580 link that in the show notes if you want to take a read. Amazing. Congrats. Well, it looked like a

00:07:48.780 huge week career-wise for you and i loved your tiktok if everyone hasn't seen it go on to maggie's

00:07:55.380 tiktok is just at you mags isn't it at maggie underscore zow on tiktok and there's the cutest

00:08:02.080 video of like maggie at fashion weeks you know like five years ago volunteering interning and

00:08:11.340 then maggie this year and it's very heartwarming and motivating so yeah plugging your tiktok way

00:08:19.360 but it's very cute

00:08:20.880 i think in the last two episodes we've spoken about this but it's still going on and i feel

00:08:33.280 like last week was like the fever pitch of the kate middleton conspiracy theories and just kate

00:08:39.440 middleton news i do think over the past like four days it has been dying down slightly um because

00:08:46.080 nothing has come out like nothing has been confirmed or denied so people maybe are moving

00:08:51.300 on a bit or just kind of wandering in the background versus being open without tiktok

00:08:56.560 but we still don't know where kate middleton is or has been and if she's okay and i think

00:09:03.320 because i'm not following this story you know word for word with each news drop because there

00:09:08.120 are so many different rumors flying around but I think my main takeaway is that royal family

00:09:16.680 not trustful they love to not really tell people what's happening um and it's just it's all around

00:09:25.060 a shambles I think that one of their mottos is like never um I'm gonna stuff this up it's like

00:09:32.880 Like never explain.

00:09:34.260 Yeah, never.

00:09:35.360 Oh, that's it.

00:09:35.860 Never complain, never explain, which I feel like is definitely happening here.

00:09:40.540 Never explaining.

00:09:41.900 The most recent news I've seen in like the past 24 hours is that the BBC is on standby

00:09:46.620 for a royal family like announcement.

00:09:49.760 But like that's not super confirmed.

00:09:53.180 Apparently like, you know, media is outside Buckingham Palace for an announcement.

00:09:56.620 um but one of the craziest stories I think has come out of this is basically a love quadrangle

00:10:07.120 so have you heard about this no with who it's been rumored for the last few years that Prince

00:10:14.940 William has been having an affair with a woman named Sarah Rose Cholmondley and she has an

00:10:22.700 official title which is the marioness of colmondeley the rumor is that prince william and

00:10:29.720 sarah rose are having an affair and then kate prince catherine had an affair with um prince

00:10:37.460 william's relative thomas who recently died oh this is like it's like so convoluted he recently

00:10:44.640 died from a like a gunshot to the head so the royal family is like this was a suicide um

00:10:52.480 But then people online are like Princess Catherine was having an affair

00:10:56.120 with this guy who died.

00:10:58.240 Prince William did it because he had bruising on him

00:11:00.920 and there was an article going around that was like what happens

00:11:04.680 if a member of the royal family is accused of a serious crime?

00:11:08.580 So that was that.

00:11:09.340 Oh, my God.

00:11:09.900 And then apparently Princess Catherine, you know,

00:11:13.620 is like pregnant with that man's baby and then Sarah Rose is pregnant

00:11:18.160 with Prince William's baby so therefore it's like an illegitimate heir.

00:11:21.160 it's like a full freaking soap opera yeah it makes me really want to get into the crown to

00:11:26.600 be honest i feel like so much is happening um and it would make for good television um obviously

00:11:32.900 we're talking about real lives but um you know i feel like the royal family is not just we're not

00:11:39.560 just like talking about like you know someone in our neighborhood we can kind of speculate about

00:11:43.720 this we talked about that last episode um so trying to like rid us of the guilt yeah but

00:11:50.000 kate middleton and like the royal family did say that she wouldn't be seen until easter which is

00:11:54.900 coming up soon it's in like not even two weeks so i'm sure we'll see we should be seeing her then

00:12:01.220 hopefully hopefully she's okay there's also other conspiracy theories um you know like hysterectomy

00:12:07.580 eating disorder etc um but i do think that it shows an interesting desire in the public for

00:12:18.240 this like almost like drama do you think this is a consequence of reality tv oh oh like that

00:12:28.940 question i feel like it could be amplified by the type of reality tv that we've had access to in

00:12:36.520 recent years which is like unprecedented like intimate details of someone's life like i don't

00:12:42.520 know keeping up the kardashians but i don't know i think gossip mags have been around for decades

00:12:48.320 and it's always been intrusive like obviously princess diana what do you think i think yeah

00:12:54.880 like you said rumors and gossip have always been around since like time began humans began um

00:13:02.060 i don't know maybe it's just more amplified because of the internet and because i'm seeing

00:13:06.720 a video of like an American in freaking San Francisco or something, like I'm hearing their

00:13:12.400 opinion of it on TikTok. So maybe it just feels more like everyone's talking about it versus like

00:13:18.120 even 10, 20 years ago when you bought a gossip magazine and you just talk about it with your

00:13:22.060 friends. But I do think that this kind of leads us onto our next topic, people making up these

00:13:28.960 stories that have no truth to them. Well, from what we know, people make up these, what's that

00:13:35.020 called like uncorroborated stories about people's lives and love triangles and pregnancies I also

00:13:40.920 think that that is because of fan fiction completely and you found this article in the face

00:13:48.760 that was published this week it is called why fanfic is Hollywood's latest obsession

00:13:54.980 and it was written by Nikolai Ripps so aside from the royal family kind of creative writing

00:14:02.560 everyone's doing online there actually is a new film genre that is booming and it is fan fiction

00:14:08.520 i do think this all began thanks to the kissing booth um which was written by beth rickles in 2010

00:14:14.960 when she was 15 on wattpad i didn't even know that that was a fanfic i just thought that was

00:14:21.520 you know a classic classic netflix type movie yeah wow i've never seen or read it but i did

00:14:29.440 know that it was a fanfic that this girl wrote like in a bedroom and I was like a huge franchise

00:14:35.140 um did you but Drake but that's Jacob Elordi you need to watch that I know I just feel you know

00:14:44.240 I've said this before on the podcast with like teen proper teen things I just cringe so hard I

00:14:49.500 can't do it maybe one day if I'm like sick or something and this is ultimate teen cringe yeah

00:14:56.360 but you know got to support the australians so i maybe i will watch there's also a trailer that

00:15:02.240 came out in the last week or two and it's about the movie the idea of you which stars anne hathaway

00:15:09.220 and nicholas gallatin who is in red white and royal blue which was also a fan fiction book

00:15:15.040 this movie is based on a book by robin lee and it's rumored although that it has been denied

00:15:23.500 to be based on Harry Styles like a fan fiction dream version of what it would be like to date

00:15:30.840 Harry Styles and that's not even the first big fanfic adaptation that we've seen about Harry

00:15:38.100 of course there was that movie slash series after which was released in 2019 I did not watch this

00:15:47.560 one and also I think it's a trilogy by now which is just hectic no I haven't seen it either who

00:15:53.480 is it star oh god i just checked and it's not even just a trilogy it is like a five-part movie

00:16:00.320 franchise which is so hectic um the guy at the center of it is uh called hero fiends tiffin

00:16:09.100 uh and the woman is josephine langford um so i have not watched this but anyway i'm a big fan

00:16:17.420 of fanfic in general I used to be a avid um consumer and also a an occasional creator of

00:16:27.000 fanfic in my early teen years so I kind of love seeing this stuff I mean it is inspiring for people

00:16:34.540 like for writers and to like people who love making up stories and writing on Wattpad that

00:16:42.260 like your story can be good enough to make it to like books and like best-selling books and movies

00:16:49.460 and tv shows um but i want to know more about um the idea of you i know i've been seeing some

00:16:57.500 saucy clips so the plot of uh the idea of you uh follows this single mother who is an hathaway

00:17:07.040 who takes her daughter to Coachella and ends up in a relationship

00:17:11.400 with the lead singer of a boy band in the film.

00:17:15.160 The woman is 40 and the boy band member is 24.

00:17:19.780 I just, reading that out loud, I just, I can't believe,

00:17:26.180 like that is a tried and true, like your classic fanfic narrative.

00:17:31.680 And I just can't believe it's turned into this huge movie

00:17:34.140 starring Miss Anne Hathaway.

00:17:35.720 I know.

00:17:37.040 i am so excited for this i'm definitely i'll be sat i'm ready so as mentioned at the top

00:17:43.540 nicoliah rips wrote about this for the face magazine in why fanfic is hollywood's latest

00:17:49.820 obsession so we will now read a little bit out now the piece is really great it kind of talks

00:17:57.460 about why fanfic is sought after in hollywood at the moment we've got the piece linked in our show

00:18:05.280 notes so definitely take a read if you're interested but we'll just read out a snippet

00:18:09.500 now thanks to this algorithm fans are unknowingly at the helm of what film studios produce streaming

00:18:15.820 power from the publishing industry and exclusionary practices nepotism and closed doors but also from

00:18:22.420 literary standards extensive edits criticism away from process and practice ultimately the result

00:18:29.900 conflates what is good with what is popular, a seemingly inescapable trend that's resulted

00:18:35.800 largely in the sacrifice of culture at the altar of content. Mining alternative sources of IP

00:18:41.780 means that there will be even fewer chances in Hollywood for original screen plays to cut

00:18:47.400 through all the noise. She continues, call it an IP money grab, call it honoring a community

00:18:52.800 oriented grassroots medium, call it the oldest story in the book. Hollywood's newest cash cow

00:18:58.320 is a decentralized behemoth of horny teenage writers queer fandoms and dorks it remains to 0.93

00:19:04.160 be seen whether whatpad and hollywood will make good on diverse community-led stories or if we're

00:19:09.800 in for a couple more iterations of harry styles if it's fact or ultimately fan fiction what i really

00:19:16.160 like about this piece is how seriously it takes you know most more generally a lot of young female

00:19:22.160 writers or a lot of young queer writers uh that you know what a lot of teens write in their bedroom

00:19:28.060 a lot of time for fun and a lot of the time with like a horny element to it I love that it's kind 0.61

00:19:34.980 of taken seriously by these massive conglomerates yeah like I said earlier I think it is really good

00:19:41.840 that hopefully this is giving more opportunities to you know queer writers writers who might not

00:19:49.280 have access to like the publishing industry it does create a weight into this industry that is

00:19:57.400 very like nepotism based and for people of a certain class usually who have the time and

00:20:04.380 leisure to sit around writing screenplays from their daddy's house. I really like this piece

00:20:08.620 and how seriously it is also taken criticizing the industry itself.

00:20:18.360 It's that time of year where the weather is just so unpredictable. It's truly rainy one minute,

00:20:23.920 then sunny the next. To be honest, March is my favorite month for weather. I love autumn and I

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00:20:44.640 are smart, functional and stylish. I love their new Miro leather loafer and their Super Journey

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00:21:17.000 at RadicalYes and online at RadicalYes.com.au.

00:21:27.200 Jazz, I have a very important question for you.

00:21:30.760 Yes? 1.00

00:21:31.580 Gay son or thought daughter? 1.00

00:21:33.880 Oof, that's a tricky one. 1.00

00:21:36.180 Gay son, I think, gay son. 0.99

00:21:37.940 Yeah, girl, same. 0.97

00:21:39.200 this was a question posed to dozens of celebrities at a recent awards uh night

00:21:47.980 by tiktoker harry daniels did you see these videos circulating the web

00:21:53.620 i did not and i don't know who that tiktoker is sometimes with tiktokers i feel so like i'm in

00:22:00.600 such a bubble like obviously i know we're all in our echo chambers but sometimes it's like

00:22:04.160 this is the most famous tiktoker in the world and i'm like i've never seen that person in my life

00:22:08.740 oh my god okay so harry's content i'm sure you might have seen one of his videos he's a guy

00:22:15.480 who finds celebrities in the wild and just sings at them right yeah i just don't find that funny

00:22:23.080 i'm like okay like you just see a celebrity like their face is like what the hell like that's yeah

00:22:29.200 anyway to each their own i think why his content is really popular is that there is an element of

00:22:35.060 like secondhand embarrassment to it like it's a hard watch but i don't know i can't look away 0.55

00:22:40.240 so at the same event it was reported that billy eilish said there's some like tiktokers here

00:22:47.460 while suddenly brushing them off because of the large amount of tiktokers who were seen on the

00:22:52.780 red carpet and then seen like in the press pit interviewing people and these videos led to a

00:22:58.220 heated online conversation about the role of influencers not just on the red carpet but also

00:23:03.840 in journalism spaces in general. And it's something that you and I are quite passionate about.

00:23:09.320 Yeah. And we're not alone. As you mentioned, there's been a lot of talk of this on the

00:23:14.900 internet recently. For instance, an entertainment editor at Cosmopolitan, Tamara Fuentes, 0.91

00:23:21.320 tweeted, and this is why me and probably some other journos dread red carpets,

00:23:26.780 which already were difficult to begin with. We're getting even less time because influencers have

00:23:31.740 gone spots for stuff like this referring to harry's thought or gay question and we have to chase a

00:23:39.080 soundbite instead of asking actual questions there's also a tweet going around by rendy jones

00:23:45.180 who's a film and tv journalist who's written for them pace magazine vanity fair etc and they say

00:23:52.640 and there's a reason why billy was like why are there tiktok influences here y'all aren't funny

00:23:58.000 nor real journalists with any professionalism. There's only a select few I can think of who

00:24:02.540 earn their keep, but most of y'all are gross. I personally see why journalists are getting 0.95

00:24:09.160 so heated about this, especially when we've had so many layoffs recently, especially in America,

00:24:16.020 Buzzfeed, Los Angeles Times, Vice, which, you know, is a sister side of the company that you

00:24:23.000 previously worked for that i work for now like seeing these industries being decimated by

00:24:29.020 basically corporate greed at the end of the day um these executives taking a big six-figure

00:24:35.840 salaries and bonuses and not leaving any for like the content creators who actually make the product

00:24:41.600 it means that there's less publications and then you know you get these influences coming in who

00:24:46.780 are just giving the studio execs what they want so like sometimes the studios pay the influencers

00:24:56.120 to attend these things i understand for publicity whatever but when you have people who are being

00:25:01.200 paid by the studio interviewing the artists the actors or whatever they're not there to critically

00:25:08.360 ask questions about whether it's a story the movie or the what it was like working on set

00:25:15.220 holding i'm i'm not saying as well that like entertainment journalism has been particularly

00:25:19.800 like hard newsy in the past there's always been an element of like at the end of the day it's

00:25:25.580 entertainment but you still have to have the opportunity to ask people more serious questions

00:25:31.300 about the industry they've trained in this industry for x amount of years to be able to

00:25:36.920 ask these questions i think of our former colleague alicia vajral who is so freaking

00:25:43.740 talented and has had a decade of interviewing celebrities at these press junkets and getting

00:25:50.440 really thoughtful meaningful questions out of them that aren't just like this soundbite for TikTok

00:25:57.080 or like getting the I don't know some like funny moment and trying to be the celebrity's friend

00:26:04.680 you're not there to be the celebrity's friend you're there to interview them and it just

00:26:09.360 I can tell I'm quite heated about this and I've seen this on the in the Australian film industry

00:26:14.800 as well you have studios and film companies inviting people like influencers etc to movie

00:26:23.480 premieres obviously they're local celebrities I understand that but if you only have influences

00:26:30.280 there and these influences are getting more invites than journalists or people in the media

00:26:37.120 then you're going to have like almost the scale is going to be chipped so far to people who are

00:26:42.700 just happy to be there they're not actually the people reviewing they're not the critics they're

00:26:46.800 just people there to have a good time and take like a fit check no offense do you know what I mean

00:26:51.860 yeah I mean I think this is a big conversation that I can see like definitely both sides of so

00:27:00.340 before we get more into our thoughts I wanted to point out this article that was on Mashable this

00:27:05.940 year um it's called what do we lose when influences replace journalists on the red carpet um eleanor

00:27:13.300 taverner writes this great piece and we were actually lucky enough to have her read some of

00:27:18.060 it out in her own words so here she is studios paying social media personalities like daniel's

00:27:25.620 to do tiktok bits on the red carpet legitimizes behavior that would be deemed unprofessional for 0.78

00:27:31.660 journalists and puts traditional media in competition with attention-grabbing theatrics

00:27:36.960 for short-form viral videos. For many casual consumers, entertainment news now exists in

00:27:43.440 bite-sized videos on TikTok or one-line summaries posted by aggregators like Film Updates or Pop

00:27:50.240 Crave on X. However, much of this content, like Daniel's video, isn't newsworthy and aggregators

00:27:56.960 often conflate these viral clips with headlines about upcoming releases and serious issues like

00:28:02.720 abuse allegations. The problem doesn't just lie with the quality of content or where audiences

00:28:08.960 are receiving it. It's also about the method by which audiences are consuming it. As influencers,

00:28:15.800 they are paid by studios while journalists work independently. Red carpets and press junkets

00:28:21.280 might not be the sites of hard-hitting news,

00:28:23.800 but reporters losing any access to powerful people

00:28:27.180 should always ring alarm bells about our ability

00:28:30.240 to hold those in power accountable.

00:28:33.640 But, Jazz, both you and me have also worked

00:28:37.260 on the sponsored side of media,

00:28:39.700 so we do see publications also being paid

00:28:43.020 to interview celebs or cover new movie releases.

00:28:47.520 and again that there is a similarity there still um I do think obviously both of us have

00:28:56.640 journalists journalism backgrounds we're not negating the importance of that but I wonder

00:29:02.620 if there is a bit of like gatekeeping happening as well in Eleanor's piece she talks about how

00:29:09.720 young people are moving away from traditional media outlets and towards internet personalities

00:29:14.760 for better or worse which is bad it's bad well mainstream new but that's so bad like we need

00:29:22.340 freaking news and we need journalism we need things that aren't attached to money and I know

00:29:29.600 that I literally work in branded content but like I'm saying like for people in our industry for our

00:29:34.420 colleagues like we need people to be holding the whole point of journalism is to hold the powers

00:29:41.040 to account and seeing the erosion of that is freaking scary and to see you know these literal

00:29:48.560 kids from LA like 19 year olds from LA being like having the opportunity to talk to people in like

00:29:55.340 the upper echelons of whether it's film or TV or the directors and being like so what do you think

00:30:02.100 of this and you're like oh my god I know that there's an entertainment part like value to it

00:30:07.140 and that's obviously the people what the people want because it's getting views but it's just

00:30:11.920 like that i think there has to be room for both and i think it's scary seeing it all go to the

00:30:16.980 one side so quickly yes and in theory yes of course like that is the purpose of journalism

00:30:23.500 but i do think we are becoming tired fatigued and skeptical and cynical of these mainstream

00:30:30.780 news outlets who aren't really doing this a lot of the time and that again it's not on journalists

00:30:36.560 fault there's a lack of funding like you mentioned before it's about just making money in the

00:30:42.860 quickest way possible a lot of the time so it's like I understand why young people are not turning

00:30:48.800 to traditional news outlets when they're not really serving them I don't think that internet

00:30:54.260 personalities fill that void but this conversation does remind me of like the whole fashion blogger

00:31:01.460 versus traditional fashion media conversation we had over a decade ago I look at pioneering

00:31:07.780 bloggers like Tabby Gevinson who entered the industry like as a pre-teen and yes she was 0.70

00:31:13.580 sitting you know front row in fashion weeks and she copped so much like for that but I think she

00:31:18.740 also could add a lot right so I do think in our conversations it's obviously not black and white

00:31:25.940 We look at internet personalities who have really done incredible jobs.

00:31:31.820 I always think about Amelia from Chicken Shop Date,

00:31:34.360 who I think is a good example of this.

00:31:36.280 I don't know if you agree.

00:31:37.360 Well, I would say she's a journalist.

00:31:39.080 She has a journalism background.

00:31:40.440 True, true, true, true.

00:31:41.640 I don't see her as any – I see her as a creator now

00:31:44.260 because of what she's done, but she works so hard

00:31:47.900 and she started Chicken Shop Date from like nothing

00:31:51.540 and created her own like journalism series.

00:31:53.980 so for me she's like a freelance journalist and always has been and now she's becoming yeah

00:31:58.940 friends with celebrities but she still can ask them fun questions which i thought in the that's

00:32:03.680 mentioned in the piece isn't it yeah amelia is like considered one of the content creators and

00:32:07.800 i'm like well she started like she studied media comms at uni and stuff very good point um yeah

00:32:14.300 in the piece they also talk about reese feldman who is on tiktok as guy with a movie camera so

00:32:20.420 he was doing a lot of things like uh the the glam bots and stuff and because he was working

00:32:26.340 also in social media while he was working as a production assistant on the fourth season of

00:32:31.780 the marvelous mrs mazel he actually became the studio's like go-to tiktok consultant

00:32:36.860 and he also recently co-hosted mtv's june part two red carpet so like again there are people who

00:32:44.620 put in the work and yeah totally produce good work but that is obviously not the case for everyone

00:32:49.560 Yeah. I think, and like, if you, I don't know, I think in my opinion, if you have this background, whether it's in journalism or production or like you're already, maybe that's maybe in Gatekeeping. If you're already in the industry, therefore you have maybe more gravitas to be asking people questions or like more, I don't know, kind of like you've worked for a bit more versus it just, I think what upsets me the most is influencers.

00:33:19.560 with no context and who don't put in the work to research the people or to maybe it's like being

00:33:28.400 not being grateful or things like that where I'm just like why are you asking these people such

00:33:33.540 dumb questions like you see it I've seen it on um I think it was a June or maybe Willy Wonka 0.86

00:33:39.760 press junket and this influencer is asking these like Timothee Chalamet and Co some questions and 0.98

00:33:47.340 they're just looking at this person like this is so bad and I think what upsets me the most is

00:33:53.180 people not thinking that interviewing people is an art and a skill that you develop over years

00:33:59.120 and years it's not just a little soundbite with a freaking tiktok mic these like to build rapport

00:34:06.560 and to like research that's a job and that's what upsets me the most it's like people's jobs are

00:34:11.460 taken by people who don't have consideration of like what actually goes into that yeah and i

00:34:19.540 actually think the other flip side of this which um is also to be critiqued is that this type of

00:34:25.800 viral tiktok content um that we're now so used to when it comes to film premieres and red carpets

00:34:31.160 has actually i would say dumbed down uh like traditional news outlets and traditional media

00:34:36.760 as well because you actually do see journalists also doing this like the amount of kind of

00:34:41.700 junkets that I've watched where people from reputable-ish sites are asking similar

00:34:47.280 meme-y questions because that's just kind of what audiences now expect. I think there's been a change

00:34:53.780 of success metric in terms of what we expect from interviews and it's hard because it's a balance

00:35:01.360 right like i enjoy uh a casual conversation of zendaya talking about tom holland but i also do

00:35:08.300 want to know about her preparing for a role in her next film so it's finding that balance because

00:35:14.340 at the end of the day like these are actors they're also entertainers by trade okay i think

00:35:20.360 that we have talked on this subject long enough um obviously it's very like ongoing topic in my

00:35:28.920 opinion that we are just at a crux where it feels like it's like a pressure cooker for like people

00:35:34.500 different industries so yeah I'm sure we'll talk about this again in the future

00:35:38.560 Max time for recommendations what have you been loving watching reading or listening to

00:35:49.480 the past week I've been listening to quite a few podcasts and the one I do want to recommend is

00:35:55.640 called search engine it is hosted by pj vote and that name might be familiar because he used to be

00:36:02.620 one of the co-hosts of the podcast reply all uh this series is very similar to reply all search

00:36:10.700 engine essentially just like takes a look at one internet question um or one question about the

00:36:17.880 internet that's floating around or being sent to the podcast team um and then they answer it

00:36:23.860 one that I really enjoyed that was recommended to me by friend Liat who is a listener of the

00:36:31.300 podcast don't know if you'll hear this far but anyway and the episode is called who's behind

00:36:36.180 all those scammy text messages we've all been getting what you get out of this episode is like

00:36:41.980 a massive investigative big piece of journalism speaking of proper journalism and they kind of

00:36:50.020 get this investigative reporter who ends up traveling halfway around the world to find out

00:36:56.780 you know who's sending him these texts why are they sending people these texts and also the very

00:37:03.640 like scary business behind this so as like I guess a trigger warning um it talks a lot about human

00:37:10.140 trafficking so that's kind of like a little sizzle about what it's about sounds so interesting

00:37:17.320 and yeah I think that's something that's so not spoken about about modern life is that we get all

00:37:24.480 these scam phone calls and text messages and stuff and it's just part of life now we're just

00:37:30.780 like anyway yeah like why isn't there like a I don't know like a government investigation into

00:37:37.380 how to stop this because I don't answer my phone now if I don't know the number if I don't have

00:37:41.720 the number saved I'm not answering it I don't care yeah and in Australia we've had such a big

00:37:46.220 rise in money scams as well and the billions of dollars lost to that so i mean i think it's very

00:37:52.220 timely conversation yeah keen to listen and what are you going to be recommending for us this week

00:37:58.920 i am recommending a tv show called apples never fall and it's on binge i just as i said that had

00:38:06.160 a flashback that i think i recommended the book on the podcast like probably two years ago so this

00:38:11.660 is a tv show based on the book by leanne moriarty who is the author behind little white lies and

00:38:19.560 nine perfect strangers so this tv series is set in west palm beach and it follows the delaney family

00:38:33.740 so two parents and four adult children um they two parents ran a tennis academy for like 30 years

00:38:42.820 but then joy and stan the couple of the parents retire and a young woman arrives on their doorstep

00:38:49.840 injured and turns the whole family's world upside down then joy actually goes missing and her four

00:38:56.860 children are left to piece together everything that they thought they knew about their parents

00:39:01.080 so it is a mystery it is a drama it has a great cast it has Alison Brie is one of the children 0.53

00:39:07.760 Sam Neill plays the dad he's amazing Jake Lacey who some people might know him as like the dickhead

00:39:15.440 husband of one of the White Lotus characters in the first season and then some other like lesser

00:39:21.540 known actors um Essie Randalls and Connor Merrigan Turner also Joy is played by Annette Bening

00:39:30.800 so like really great ensemble cast of really really strong actors yeah it's a great mystery

00:39:36.880 it's kept me and my grandma and mother-in-law watching um like you know we've kind of been

00:39:42.860 watching it at the moment so yeah 100% recommend if you want like a well-written murder mystery

00:39:50.700 adore thank you so much for joining us uh for this episode of culture club we can't wait to

00:39:57.840 be back in your ears soon. Bye. Bye.

Culture Club - March 18, 2024

Are We Getting Replaced By Influencers？

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