Zoe Spencer
5th May 2025

Gossip Isn't Dead - It's Just Gone Digital

When someone says the word gossip, what do you picture? Perhaps salacious whispers exchanged between friends, or a workplace scandal threatening to ruin a reputation. 

 

Whatever your interpretation, two-thirds of Americans believe that gossip is usually (45%) or always (23%) harmful to society. Despite this, gossip has remained at the heart of modern society for decades—fuelling conversations, shaping reputations, and creating a sense of community through shared curiosity. 

 

In an era of celebrity culture, our collective obsession with gossip is perhaps best encapsulated by the popularity of the tabloid newspaper. With sensational headlines, scandalous pull-out quotes, and invasive photographs dominating the front page, tabloids have long thrived on turning the intimate details of people’s personal lives into public spectacles. But with the digital age in full swing, a pertinent question arises: is gossip culture dying, or simply evolving?

Proof that in our era, people just can't stay away: When you google 'Meghan Markle', the options below include 'Meghan Markle split', 'Meghan Markle divorce' and 'latest news'.  

Tabloid journalism thrives on the sensational. Emerging in the 18th century, tabloid magazines were pivotal in spreading gossip and entertaining news, finding its target audience in readers hungry for the shocking, the vulgar, and the deeply personal. News organisations like The Sun and The Mirror in the UK, and TMZ and The National Enquirer in the USA, became synonymous with tabloid journalism, shaping how celebrity discourse was consumed by the public. 

 

By the 2000s, sensationalist reporting had reached its pinnacle, as the demand for gossip increasingly blurred the lines between ethical journalism and entertainment. 

 

Princess Diana’s tragic death was associated with the relentless paparazzi who followed her due to the media’s obsession with the intimacies and scandals of her personal life. Similarly, Britney Spears’ breakdown in 2007 was widely publicised and documented by the tabloid press, which capitalised on the mental unravelling of a vulnerable young woman who had been harassed, sexualised, and abused from a young age. More recently, the vilification of Meghan Markle is further evidence of this ongoing media obsession and one that ultimately contributed to Prince Harry’s decision to step away from the royal family. 

Why Gossiping Feels So Good

From ancient civilisations to industrialised nations, gossip has been at the centre of human bonding and is a ubiquitous feature of our modern society. Whilst some might argue that gossiping provides us with defined meaningful guidelines of acceptable social behaviour, it also invites us to take joy in the downfall of others. Schadenfreude, the German word for the pleasure derived from another’s misfortune, encapsulates a feeling that seems at odds with human empathy and understanding. The dehumanisation of celebrities often leads us to take joy in their downfall, adopting a 'better them than me' mentality. We revel in the dramatisation of someone’s private life playing out in the court of public opinion. In this way, traditional tabloid journalism has thrived by reflecting our insecurities back to us, reinforcing the notion that the lives of the rich and famous are not as enviable as they may seem. In turn, we take pleasure in the scrutiny and judgement that gossip culture relishes. 

 

As news organisations moved online, print tabloids struggled to maintain their loyal readership, while social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok revolutionised the way celebrities interact with their audiences. Celebrities now post directly to their followers, carefully curating their image and bypassing the invasive scrutiny of the traditional press. In an age of heightened social awareness, there is far less tolerance for the public shaming of vulnerable figures, and public attitudes towards the tabloid industry have evolved accordingly. The fat-shaming, harassment, and mental health mockery that defined the early 2000s are now of course viewed with a sense of shame and regret. Crucially, celebrities have gained the ability to shape and control their own narratives and their reaction to gossip can often become more culturally significant than the gossip itself. Whether they respond publicly with a statement straight from the note’s app, post a playful TikTok or choose silence, their approach becomes part of the story and grants them a level of autonomy rarely afforded to celebrities in previous decades.

 

Despite the decline of traditional tabloids, gossip culture hasn’t disappeared—it has simply adapted to the digital age. While celebrities now hold greater control over their personal narratives and tabloids no longer wield the same influence, para-social relationships between public figures and their audiences remain as intense as ever. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube enable influencers and celebrities to invite fans into their lives, offering carefully curated glimpses that blur the boundaries between authenticity and performance. But this perceived closeness fosters a false sense of intimacy – followers feel emotionally invested and entitled to unadulterated access to the private lives of those they admire. Additionally, when public figures act immorally or recklessly, fans respond as though they’ve been personally betrayed. This reaction highlights the rise of these para-social relationships - one-sided emotional connections formed with idolised celebrities who are entirely unaware of our existence. 

 

The rise of ‘cancel culture’ has only intensified this dynamic. Gossip now holds the power to shape our public opinion rapidly and dramatically. Online speculation can spiral into widespread outrage, forcing celebrities to address speculation and paradoxically amplifying the controversy. When celebrities fail to disclose about their sexuality, relationship status or about the intimacies of their personal life, they now risk ‘fake news’ circulating online, as followers and fans fill in the gaps of the missing information through a relentless online network of gossip. In this new digital landscape, the tide of public opinion shifts with alarming speed, constantly feeding a cultural appetite for dramatic, and frequently invasive content now delivered through diverse platforms.

 

The tabloids might be dying out, but gossip culture remains. Society scorned the exploitative tabloid headlines of the past, but it hasn’t lost its hunger for stories about other people. We still crave connection, scandal, and gossip, we just consume it through different channels, and with a heightened understanding of its consequences. Despite the rise in social consciousness rejecting the cruellest aspects of tabloid journalism, the cultural impulse to dissect, scrutinise and speculate about the personal lives of others remains strong, playing out across social media sites. The medium has evolved but the appetite for gossip has remained as insatiable as ever.