Before social media, influencers, or clickbait, one Christmas morning in London a young journalist was given a simple instruction: find a story — any story — about the Spice Girls. Paul was just 22, working Boxing Day shifts at the height of tabloid culture, when newspapers still ruled attention and front pages sold copies.

With nothing happening on the news agenda, Paul and a photographer did what journalists once did — they went digging, quite literally, through rubbish bins outside the Spice Girls’ homes. Discarded Christmas packaging became headlines. It was funny, uncomfortable, slightly surreal — and completely normal at the time.

This story is a snapshot of how media power worked before the internet: how stories were sourced, how attention was manufactured, and how speed often mattered more than reflection. Today the tools have changed — algorithms, platforms, AI — but the human hunger for story hasn’t. From bins to bots, the chase for attention remains, even as the ethics and mechanics evolve.