I hate the whole Jordan and Pete's saga... Do you?

For this week's group discussion, we had to pick one media object and we decided to go with Jordan and Pete, because we were expecting that a lot of people were fed up with them and we will get a lot of responses. Firstly, we started with our personal opinions on the whole drama.

The reasons behind our dislike of the Jordan/Peter stories are:
• The long-term effect the coverage will have on the children
• Both Jordan and Peter are playing the media off of each other, both wanting to appear the innocent party
• We are disgusted the story has received so much media coverage because important events are taking page 4 instead of the headlines and front pages of newspaper
• The media war is boosting their profiles, so much so the publicity their receiving is still gaining them profit
• The media coverage around the story is getting irrelevant to the divorce.
• The general concern why audiences even care!?
• The whole situation is getting very bitter and the children are going to suffer as a result by being dragged into it all
• They need this media war to resurrect their careers, following along the idea that Peter Andre’s album release was ironically just after the split hit headlines

The first conclusion from our discussion was that the group is basically divided into two sides - 3 people on Katie's, 2 on Peter's and 1 person who hates them both.

We summed up the reasons behind the support of Jordan, that are:
• Ever since the marriage ended, Jordan has appeared honest about the situation
• She is direct and she knows what she wants

Whereby the reasons behind the support of Pete are:
• Pete is trying to keep certain details concealed about the divorce, kind of keeping the right of privacy
• It is obvious he didn’t try to seek as much publicity as Jordan over the whole divorce
• He acted in a more dignified manner, responding to Jordan’s accusations, rather than attacking her first

Then we looked beyond the personal stories and opinions, opposed or supportive of Jordan and Pete and their publicity stunts, and analysed how the media coverage influences the whole hassle. We concluded that the attention they get from the audience, due to the vast media coverage of everything they do, makes them continue to seek publicity and leak press releases. If, for instance, the newspapers and magazines stop publishing news about the divorce and the media in general stops following every step of the couple, the story is probably going to die out.

There seem to be some people who believe that their divorce is definitely a publicity stunt and perhaps when there is nothing more to talk about that, they are going to get back together. Which is based exactly on the fact that the media coverage influences what they do. One couldn’t help but wonder if the story is actually true at all or it is completely media oriented, as we’ve seen so many times before (the t.A.t.U publicity stunts, for instance).

Looking outside of our group and what we had to say about the Jordan and Peter media war, we sent a member of our team to pick people at random within the library and streets to find out their opinions. Here are some of their answers:

Alton White, 19, Moseley:
“I find them very annoying”.

Kayleigh Gleeson, 19, Coventry:
“The whole saga is very annoying. I’m fed up with Peter playing the victim”.

Fay Snell, 19, Guildford:
“I like the whole saga, its a love/hate relationship. I am on Peter’s side because she is a slut”.

Louise Westwood, 19, Preston:
“Find it quite interesting, I like to laugh at other people’s expense. I would pick Peter”.

Paul Sleight, 21, Cleethorpes:
“It’s just a waste of time knowing other people’s business. Just no class in it”.

Guy Stanley, 18, Worcestershire:
“Complete waste of time. Katie in just a slag and a waste of oxygen”.

Rachel Hand, 20, Stevenage:
“I love Peter Andre. I hate Katie. It's simple. I don’t like her because she goes out partying and she dumps her kids on him. She loves herself far too much”.

Mark Matthews, 27, Coventry:
“I have completely avoided it. I don’t really pay attention to it. Its all attention seeking”.

Kim Roddis, 20, Barnsley:
“I hate them both especially Katie, they are both idiots”.

Bashir Yusuf, 21, Birmingham:
“I hate Peter because he seems like he is the victim. He is the one that broke up with her”.

What we can conclude from that is that the target audience of the whole media coverage and publicity stunts is exactly the 18-22 age group, who are mainly students (obviously the 27-year-old tried to avoid the whole story). That basically influences Pete and Jordan to aim at that age group and also the producers that cover the story are able to target their consumers, based on the knowledge they have on age, ethnicity, occupation, etc.

We tried to expand our analysis beyond the handful of people we asked around the library by setting up a Facebook group "I hate the whole Jordan/Pete saga... Do you?" and inviting all of our friends and their friends to join and express their opinion. We asked them about age, gender, ethnicity, occupation, social class; we encouraged them to say whether they have a side in the story and why as well as whether they have an opinion over how the progression of their story is influenced by the media coverage. And just to prove our point that Jordan seeks way too much publicity, we looked at the Sun and the latest news, and as it turns out Katie now suggests new girlfriends for her (now officially) ex-husband (after having suggested "Strictly" judge Alesha Dixon and also having accused Pete of cheating with his manager Claire Powell and her former bridesmaid Michelle Clack.

We only have around 20 members for now, so we are going to continue analysis of that specific task probably next week as well, since we're trying to get as much information as possible and it will be really helpful to hear the lecture on Thursday and what other people have to say during the feedback sessions. So, more to come on that issue.

Labels: tasks