Culture

The highs, lows and whoas of the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards

WAtoday Nell Geraets

28 Sept 2026 16:31 AEST Summary

From the report

From Madonna’s dad jokes to Taylor Swift’s music video premiere, here are the most memorable moments from the 2026 VMAs.

This is a summary. The indicators are not. The scores were measured over this summary alone, which is less of the article than we would like and makes them less certain.

Indicators

Niral Score 8.8 mundaneloaded

Highlighted in the text. Words that carry a fact and quoted words are not counted.

No word appears twice.

Sourcing 36 unattributednamed sources Mood 50 sorrowjoyful

6 read zero: sentiment, political diction, generational, gender, jingoistic, religious

Sentiment 0 hostilefavourable Political diction 0 left-codedright-coded Generational 0 harder on the oldharder on the young Gender 0 no gendered framingframing throughout Jingoistic 0 reports to a readerwrites from a camp Religious 0 not invokedovert

Measurements of how this article is written, not of whether it is correct. How each one is measured.

Measured on WAtoday’s report as filed, which is all we may publish of this one.

How outlets headlined it

Each outlet's own headline. ~~Struck through~~: the loaded words our version leaves out. Plainest first.

WAtoday The highs, lows and whoas of the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards plain
The West Australian Taylor Swift lands top trophy at MTV Video Music Awards plain
ABC News (Business) Madonna beats Taylor Swift in MTV VMAs ~~showdown~~meeting 1 change

How each outlet filed it

Also covered by The West Australian, Brisbane Times, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald. We hold only their summary of it, not the report, so there is nothing of theirs to measure here.

Outlet	Niral Score	Adjectives	Sourcing	Sentiment	Happiness
WAtodayas they published this story	8.8	1	36	0	50
ABC News (Business)	11.3	17	50	0.7	73.7

Also reported by

9 Australian outlets reported this story. These are the ones we do not read; their headlines are matched to this one automatically, so an occasional match may be a different story.

Taylor Swift the most - awarded artist in MTV history bluemountainsgazette.com.au
Taylor Swift the most - awarded artist in MTV history sconeadvocate.com.au
Taylor Swift the most - awarded artist in MTV history dailyadvertiser.com.au

Coverage from The GDELT Project.

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The same event elsewhere

5 other outlets filed this story. The scoreboard above is what they did differently.

The West Australian Taylor Swift lands top trophy at MTV Video Music Awards Niral 11.2 political 0 ABC News (Business) Madonna beats Taylor Swift in MTV VMAs meeting Niral 11.3 political 0 Brisbane Times The highs, lows and whoas of the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards Niral 8.8 political 0 The Age The highs, lows and whoas of the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards Niral 8.8 political 0 The Sydney Morning Herald The highs, lows and whoas of the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards Niral 8.8 political 0