About Media

One of the significant problems with Political Correctness is this constant singling out of a single word or even a phrase, particularly by the media. They are generally not interested in the actual context of whatever was being said, particularly by ‘important people’ since they are only looking at a 7 second ‘sound bite’ for their programme that will generate the most ‘news’ attention (and for news today, lets read gossip. I mean since when did someone being ejected from a cooking programme rate as news?). The media today don’t want the facts (or very seldom). Facts don’t sell. Tragedy sells, and the media will grab that. The running, microphone-bearing news presenter, will rush up to the devastated, shell-shocked individual, as quickly as possible. Thrusting the furry covered microphone at the bewildered victim and asking a ‘news worthy’ question, such as, “So, how does it feel to have your daughter run over by the drink driver?” Seriously? Where is the news in such an emotionally charged atmosphere. The media want shock. They want something that will fill in the seven seconds of attention, which a ‘promo’ will generate. To generate audience numbers, to sell advertising. It appears that audiences concentration have seriously deteriorated. For the most part it has been reduced to just seven seconds. The announcer says “and in parliament today Mr/s/iss (whatever is politically correct on the particular day) said, I don’t agree with Mr/s/iss. They then cross to the actual footage where the person on the screen says, “I don’t agree with Mr/s/iss” When did it all go so wrong?

There was a time when I was younger, when a single presenter presented the news. For half an hour. There were no advertisement breaks during the news. The news was read to viewers, without any ‘crossing live’ to someone in the field, at the scene or, with the victims. We heard the news, and it was news. We heard who said what, to whom and what the response was. If there was footage, that played while the rest was read. We did not need one person at the courthouse, one person outside the victims house and then one person somewhere else. And that’s just the start. It’s going downhill from this.

In politics news in the media, I have rarely heard anything of achievement in the last year, that was not a snatched excerpt from possibly a significant policy, where the person speaking said a word or such out of place that was not thrust out by the media as “news” while the actual policy or context of what the speaker was saying was ignored. Not satisfied with that, the other media outlets, who may have missed catching the word or phrases, but, recognising the potential to ‘grab audience numbers’ jumps on board, not even bothering with what the rest of the information was, but creating entire ‘news reports’ based solely upon what was said ‘accidently, inadvertently or generally as a part of a greater whole. The media are like standby, unemployed gravediggers, who are simply waiting, with shovels poised, to bury anyone who makes an inappropriate comment, phrase or word as quickly as possible regardless of the real facts.

(Continued tomorrow)