The Politics of Showbiz (038, Nov 2012)

After The Anti Room takeover last week (so good that we’ll definitely do it again in 2013), it’s back to business as usual at Banter this month. The politics of showbiz is a topic which has been on the to-do list for ages and it’s great that we’ve finally got around to it.

The biggest growth area in media coverage over the last few years has come from showbiz, social diary, gossip and entertainment pages, websites, TV sections and radio shows. This is the media’s real appeal for many readers – not investigate journalism or hard-hitting political exposes, despite many hacks and editors think.

Banter will look at the people on the showbiz desk and those who feature week in and week out in those pages. Who decides who gets covered and why? What do readers get from this? Are readers just a nosey bunch living vicariously through all this coverage of parties and launches or does it say something more about our psyches? And what exactly are the politics of showbiz?

Our showbiz panel: Rosanna Davison (former Miss World, model and columnist), Eoin Murphy (Entertainment Editor, Irish Daily Mail and Mail On Sunday) and Niamh Horan (The Sunday Independent).

Diary date: Wednesday November 21 at the Twisted Pepper (Middle Abbey St., Dublin 1). Doors open at 7.30pm, the bantering starts at 8pm and admission is free but you need to sign up to the invite list here.

Mo’ Banter: our annual review-of-the-year takes place at the Twisted Pepper on December 12. And eyes peeled for some very special Banter news next week.