J-Lab Episode 30: Holding Victoria Beckham and James Norton to account, with Katie Hind

J-Lab

The appetite for showbiz and celebrity news has only increased during the last 12 months and our guest for this episode is Katie Hind, showbiz editor at the Mail on Sunday newspaper. In the last year alone, Katie has broken stories that forced Victoria Beckham to withdraw her application for government furlough money; that blew the whistle on James Norton and other celebrities for posting photos of their Audi cars on Instagram without telling followers they were freebies; and that revealed Rolling Stone Mick Jagger had sex with the actor Rae Dawn when she was just 15. In this episode, Katie explains how the role of the showbiz differs from other reporting roles, but also why she believes celebrity stories are a very important part of the newsroom mix. She discusses too the toxic trolling and abuse that she and many other female journalists are having to endure on social media. This podcast is brought to you by the Civic Journalism Lab at Newcastle University.