2024 has certainly been a big year for the news agenda. From a change of government in the UK to the US presidential election race. CrowdStrike causing a mass IT outage due to a faulty update. Climate disasters such as Hurricane Milton and the flooding in Valencia. The return of Celine Dion at the opening ceremony of the Olympics. And who could forget Joe Biden’s mumbles, stumbles and blunders (hopefully, Joe Biden). The list of ‘big news’ events is nearly as long as Santa’s naughty and nice list! At Skout, we live and breathe the media – it’s our bread and butter (or, I should say, our mince pie and brandy). With a team of PR elves monitoring the news on a daily basis, we thought we’d share our roundup of the top 12 people who have influenced the headlines over the past year.
1. Donald Trump
An obvious choice for our roundup – when is he not making headlines? Aside from an attempted assassination and winning the US election to become the 47th president, we were glued to his debates with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Here are a few of his famous one liners: “Hannibal Lecter is a wonderful man”, “[Joe Biden] is taking orders from the Easter bunny”, and “The beauty of me is that I’m very rich”.
2. Kamala Harris
Kamala Harris missed out on becoming the first female US president but she held her own when it came to handling ‘Trumpisms’. To connect with young voters, she mastered the art of TikTok with many users sharing her 2023 meme “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” and declaring she is ‘brat’ (a reference to Charlie XCX’s new chart-topping album). She also rallied a lot of support during her election campaign from the likes of Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and Beyonce.
3. Mr Bates
‘Mr Bates vs The Post Office’ aired on ITV earlier this year and drew widespread attention to the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of subpostmasters due to a faulty IT system. News headlines led to public anger which caused the government to implement emergency legislation to exonerate convictions in England and Wales. Former subpostmaster, Alan Bates, was put into the spotlight due to his campaign efforts against the miscarriages of justice and he was subsequently awarded a Pride of Britain Award. In our view, this is an excellent example of how influencing the media can be used for good.
4. Molly-Mae & Tommy Fury
The Love Island power couple announced their split in August following rumours that the boxer cheated on his fiancée whilst partying on holiday. The cheating allegations caused a huge backlash against Fury and he was forced to deny any wrongdoing. A journalist from i-News wrote that Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury were the nation’s sweethearts and the split has caused heartbreak for their followers invested in their fairytale romance.
5. Elon Musk
Spaceships, robots, electric cars. There’s not a lot this man can’t do. He will even be heading up the Department of Government Efficiency for the new Trump administration. Perhaps we can also add hero to this list as in late September, he launched his space shuttle ‘SpaceX’ to rescue two astronauts that are currently stuck in space.
6. Kier Starmer
After 14 years of a Tory government, UK voters wanted a change and in July 2024, Kier Starmer’s Labour party took the reins. This was a historic victory with the new Prime Minister announcing, “Change begins now”. However, this celebration didn’t last long. Farmer protests, winter fuel allowance cuts and Starmer requiring to payback £6000 worth of ‘donations’ provoked the media to write some unfavourable headlines
7. The Princess of Wales
At the start of the year, the Princess of Wales was notably absent from public appearances causing rumours to circulate about her health and her relationship with William. These were soon put to rest when she announced she was undergoing preventive chemotherapy in a video message that was aired to the world and made widespread headlines. Fortunately, she is now on the road to recovery and has delighted the public at a number of events over the past few months.
8. Taylor Swift
The UK leg of The Eras Tour kicked off this summer and so did the concept of ‘Swiftonomics’ with reports suggesting that the pop star boosted the economy by £1 billion! And not surprising, considering 1.2 million fans booked tickets (including two Skout Swifties). On the flip side, the Prime Minister’s ‘meet and greet’ with Taylor did ruffle a few feathers with the media causing more unwanted attention for our new PM.
9. Paddy McGuinness
Can you imagine cycling 300 miles on a Raleigh Chopper bike? (Google it if you don’t know what it looks like). Well, Bolton comedian Paddy McGuinness did just that. In November, Paddy cycled from Wrexham to Glasgow over five days raising over £9 million for Children in Need. This ultra endurance challenge was celebrated by all the important news publications including Cycling Weekly!
10. Oasis
The reunion of Oasis was a ‘Supersonic’ announcement but it wasn’t long before the ticket vendors came under scrutiny for dynamic pricing. Fans were in uproar after waiting in online queues for hours to secure a ticket only to find the price had doubled. We might say ‘Don’t look back in anger’ but it’s hard not to if you’re a fan of the Manchester band.
11. Joe Biden
Poor Joe! If he’s not being ridiculed in the press for forgetting his words, he’s being mocked by Donald Trump for his ‘sleepy antics’. President Biden has had many blunders this year that has made headlines, from mistakenly calling Ukraine’s President Zelensky “President Putin” at a NATO Summit to calling Trump his Vice President. Oh dear. Unfortunately, many of his best bloopers have been created into meme’s on TikTok.
12. Ruth Jones and James Corden
The episode everyone’s looking forward to. Drum roll…Gavin & Stacey: The Finale. Jones and Corden delighted everyone and made headlines when they revealed that they would be making a Christmas special to finally provide answers to everyone’s questions. Will we ever find out what happened on that fishing trip? Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
13. Bonus: Santa Clause
Jolly old Santa always makes an appearance at this time of year. From Christmas grotto’s that have gone wrong to impersonators delivering random acts of kindness to those in need, he is the gift that keeps on giving for the media. However, what sparked controversy this December was Coca Cola’s decision to not feature Santa and instead, use AI to create its famous advert.
