The Pop Crave Effect
Prioritizing Speed and Spectacle in Entertainment "News"
In the past year or so, I’ve delivered many pieces of political and pop culture news to my friends and cohorts in casual conversations, often beginning with the phrase “I read an article about _________.” The trouble is: I’ve been lying. I often haven’t read an article on the news I’m sharing. Instead, I’m typically referring to a tweet loosely referencing a Deadline or GQ article - I’m providing a pull quote from a tweet that’s essentially a pull quote itself. Nine times out of ten, the tweet I’m referring to comes from one of the two most popular news sources for young people online today: the Pop Crave and Pop Base accounts on Twitter.
At the time of writing this, Pop Crave and Pop Base have 1.6 million and 1.2 million followers on Twitter, respectively. The accounts deliver breaking news, random facts, and tidbits of information relating to pop culture, entertainment, and politics to Twitter users. A typical tweet from either account will contain one or two sentences about a popular musician’s new album release, the opening weekend box office results for a new blockbuster, or the announcement of a burgeoning celebrity relationship. Simpler tweets will merely display a celebrity’s picture along with the words “__________ stuns in new photo,” a phrase that’s been memed via parody tweets and Halloween costumes galore.
Historically, pop culture has been Pop Crave and Pop Base’s forte, but more recently, they’ve begun dabbling in the delivery of traditional, mainstream news - specifically stories relating to American electoral politics. Both accounts have provided updates on sensational political events like the expulsion of former Congressman George Santos, the Supreme Court’s ruling on Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s entry into the 2024 Republican presidential primary. In 2020, Pop Crave announced the results of the 2020 presidential election a full day before most American newspapers, wire services, or television networks, citing Decision Desk HQ as its source. On the heels of the 2024 presidential election, I’m expecting the accounts to be just as speedy this time around.
You don’t have to follow Pop Crave and Pop Base on Twitter to feel the impact of their wake. I don’t follow either account, yet their tweets inevitably spawn at the top of my timeline upon refreshing. In this excellent article by Christian Pax for Vox, Pax explains how Pop Crave and Pop Base exemplify the digital news phenomenon of “incidental exposure” well. “Incidental exposure” describes the experience of encountering news and information without actively searching for it. Algorithms have a way of accelerating incidental exposure, pushing the information to users that seems most fitting. The Twitter algorithm, for instance, knows that I am a pop culture fanatic, and fittingly spits tweets from either pop culture giant my way. The Pop Crave/Pop Base experience is less like mulling over your Sunday paper and more like hearing a town crier shout from a street corner - disseminating information you weren’t seeking, but now know nonetheless.
The first ingredient in Pop Crave’s secret sauce is its ability to deliver news in an abbreviated character count. Amid ever-shrinking attention spans, the reverse pyramid method of journalism is no longer viable. In many online circles, it’s no longer enough to lead with the most important information in a story, followed by supporting details and background. Much like the instant information delivery and serotonin hits transmitted on TikTok, shorter-form news is what’s palatable to most internet perusers. They don’t have time to read, or click a link that will open in another tab - they need the information now. Thus, the story simply is that significant, newsworthy nugget delivered via tweet on one’s feed. A succinct version of a lede. What Roman Roy from Succession would call a “tasty morsel” from a “groovy hub.”
The second ingredient is recycling news, either by pulling overlooked newsworthy moments out of existing stories or conjuring the news out of otherwise insipid material. The story can be the action of a celebrity and nothing else (i.e. “Ariana Grande announces new single ‘yes, and.’ Out January 12"). Or it can be a random quote pulled from an existing story with its context pruned away (i.e. “‘Emerald wanted Timothée Chalamet for [Oliver]. And I said ‘have you thought about Barry?' - Jacob Elordi to British Vogue"). Or it can simply be a zoomed-in photo or video of celebrities interacting, like “Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift talking at the Golden Globes.”
This half-baked, out-of-context material compels people to further share and deliberate. Internet users dissect the quote or read the celebrities’ lips to determine what they’re actually discussing. People are obliged to mull over the content crumbs with friends and mutuals to determine what the real “story” is. As such, these pop culture accounts determine what’s newsworthy, even if it’s something as innocuous as celebrity friends conversing at an award show. And oftentimes, they only need a mere fraction of the narrative to get a conversation in motion. They wash their hands clean of tabloid allegations - they’re simply providing the zoomed-in video of Selena and Taylor and we’re insinuating the rest. They are magicians, MacGyvers - making something out of what would otherwise seem like nothing.
On the surface, Pop Crave has a kind of soullessness, akin to a corporate Twitter support account. It’s a bit of a black box. We don’t know the name or face of whoever is pressing “Post,” and the tweets are often stripped of personality, or at least details that would add any kind of personal vigor. However, in 2020, Pop Crave Founder Will Cosme spoke with Insider about the organization’s journey, from its humble origins as a pop music stan account to a now-recognized leader paving what some consider the new frontier of entertainment journalism. In the interview, Cosme and Pop Crave Editor Drew Howard confirmed their prioritization of speed and sensation in their work. "Twitter was the perfect tool for us because it allows us to crank out news as quickly as we do and it taught us how to get directly to the point in so many characters, which is what fans love," Cosme shares. "They get the whole story in a nutshell.”
When asked whether Pop Crave plans to get more involved with politics long-term after calling the 2020 presidential election, Howard’s reply is simple: "We only jump in when we feel something is trending so much that we can't ignore it."
Howard’s response makes me reminiscent of Pop Crave and competitor Pop Base’s coverage of the missing OceanGate submersible in June 2023. While deep sea exploration isn’t related to pop culture, the missing sub was certainly a trending topic, compelling either account to provide play-by-play updates. As Twitter users deliberated how the submersible occupants passed time on the ocean floor, waiting for their oxygen supply to run out or for a miracle rescue, Pop Base (a true black box, verified account with no records of its founders), fanned the flames, proclaiming when the submersible’s 96-hour oxygen supply had likely run out, without linking a source. Of course, in reality, the poorly engineered submersible imploded under tons of ocean pressure. But we didn’t officially know that at the time. And far less content is to be mined from a suspected implosion. A dwindling oxygen supply is much sexier and much easier to share and quote tweet jokes about. I’m sure Pop Base wasn’t ignorant of this.
I am a product of my time, which, as a zoomer, is to say that I am a frequent sharer of Pop Crave links in group chats, a laugher at the account’s quote tweets, and a devourer of celebrity scandal. I’m a hypocrite and a horrid gossip. I gobble up my tasty morsels and lick the plate clean. Yet, I can’t deny how this format is harming an already struggling journalism industry and a demographic of restless young people who can’t watch a movie on their couch without scrolling on their phones simultaneously. We’re taught to want our information and entertainment quickly, even if the speed strips it of meaningful nuance, context, and color.
Even when Pop Crave and Pop Base provide their sources (which sometimes lean uncredible, Drew Howard cited Stan Twitter, Reddit, and ATRL as their primary fact-checkers in 2020), copycat accounts run the risk of disseminating misinformation. The accounts prioritize speed and spectacle, which puts pressure on traditional news outlets to prioritize the same things to compete. Aside from the expected panics of the decaying journalism field, I fear what the repercussions are for our attention spans. Pax is right to describe the phenomena as “clickbait without the click” - we no longer have to shoulder the burden of lifting one additional finger. What does it say that a new age of journalism may hinge on 280 character counts and only sometimes linking a source?
Music journalist Gary Suarez describes the Pop Crave/Pop Base effect as “a disruptor that has zero interest in journalism, preferring instead to appeal to the fans and stans scrolling on social." And perhaps it is exactly that. Perhaps this is a device best conceived as the Mothership of stan account material and not as a serious journalism outlet. As what Suarez also calls a “link farm” on its good days. I think we’d be smart to consider it that moving forward, and little more than that.
We’d also be wise to tread carefully as more accounts like Pop Crave and Pop Base arise while legacy publications dwindle. Just because it looks and smells plausible doesn’t mean it always is. Our brains and good faith news systems succeed when context, perspective, and nuance are served alongside a compelling lede. When we’re able to sit with a story and mull it over for more than a few seconds, diving into sincere sources for further detail. Seeking out talented journalists in the entertainment and music verticals - in larger and smaller publications alike, on Substack, and even on Twitter - would benefit our minds and media diets. And, of course, let our thumbs rest for a second.
For more on the topic of sensationalized stories and our generation’s shrinking attention spans, check out my articles Stifling the Spectacular and Entertaining Ourselves in Automation Nation if you haven’t already.
Also I’ll never forget the day Pop Crave and co. took a quote from Jennette McCurdy’s memoir out of context just to use it to spread rumors about a feud between her and Ariana Grande, all in service of driving their numbers up. No regard for anyone’s privacy or respect for their craft, the craft in this case being Jennette bravely telling her story in a very well-written book that had infinitely more interesting things in it than some line about Ariana.
Amen! 👏🏻 it is truly terrifying, and it is amazing that more people do not see this. When are we going to claim responsibility for our own education or even value education? And by education I do not mean overpriced pieces of paper collected after a long series of prescribed and confusing assignments. I believe that we can only ever educate ourselves.