> gossip for just a handful of drivers.

They are using the technique of formula fiction, that is, what the ancient Greeks discovered as a sure-fire way to get and hold the attention of an audience.

So, in that formula, there is a protagonist the audience comes to
identify with, that is, care about. Then
the protagonist has a problem.
Through various highly in doubt and
improbable victories, from skill,
guts, determination, smarts, luck, whatever, the protagonist
wins and at the end gets the girl.

Can see a version of this formula
fiction just as orchestral music
with no words at all in the Richard
Strauss Ein Heldenleben as at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2-dLoWorUs

So, to use some words, there is a man, the hero, aka, protagonist, nice
guy, cruising along in life. Then he
encounters his adversary, nasty,
menacing, bad dude (flute, etc.). Then
starting at about 10:00 in the
performance above, he
sees HER, the girl (solo violin --
IMHO one of the best
solo violin parts in orchestral
music)!
She's a dream!
But, soon, she's also darned hard to get
and gives him a really tough time, a
worse time than
even Isolde gave Tristan in
http://www.exoticitaly.com/images/Tristan-and-Isolde.jpg

where he wouldn't take his
eyes off of her and she
flatly refused even to look
at him.

Near 14:00 she really
chews him out!

Soon she starts to be nice.

About 15:00 they
really start to smile at each other!

Around 16:00 they are
together.

He keeps trying and eventually
hear the music of the climax
when he kisses her or
whatever.

Teenage boys,
your life is so much easier now:
Have that climax music
queued up ready to
go at a single button click
at just the right time
with her on the living room
sofa. Trust me: Richard Strauss
understood her much better
than you do!

Just about the time the
hero is to settle down
to a wonderful life of
love, home, marriage, children,
the adversary returns.
The hero goes off to
battle, maybe as in the
Edmund Blair Leighton God Speed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Speed_(painting)

There is a big battle with the bad dude.
Tough battle. Comes and goes.
Finally the hero wins the battle.

Then there is victory music.
Terrific victory music.
As in art, the "communication,
interpretation of human experience,
emotion", the victory music communicates
well what a really big victory
must feel like,
bigger than getting
10 KLOC of code to run,
a Series A, a big M&A offer,
an IPO, anything in business.
Really great victory music.
If want to do a foil deck with a mash up of
some media content
for a presentation
to investors, maybe in
the last slide in the foil
deck use the Ein Heldenleben
victory music as background.
No words, but it would be
tough to miss the message!
Of course, not even a big IPO
could come up to the Richard
Strauss music, but, well,
there were no words for
lawyers to use to sue for breach
of promise!

In the performance at the link
above, the victory music
is before 30:00 with the
climax in the next minute or so.

At the end, after the hero
has hung up his sword and
is fading away, the girl
is really nice to him.

If going to play with formula
fiction, then might as well
play with some of the best of
it! Right, at one point the
treble line suddenly goes
up and the bass line, down.
So, it feels, say, expansive,
grand.

Ah, Richard Strauss, expert
in applied psychology of
human emotions!
Good thing that human
emotions haven't changed
much since he wrote his
music!

So, the race car drivers are made into protagonists people identify with.
Similarly for what the tabloids do
with celebrities. Similar to
what a lot of TV news show producers
try to do with their anchors.

Put all of it into various buckets, e.g.,
manipulation, light entertainment.
But it's not information.