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Post by cheerypeabrain on Oct 24, 2011 16:34:42 GMT
I feel that the media, in the UK in particular, has too much influence and too little social conscience. Newspaper and tv reporting seems to be politically biased, even the so called 'neutral' newspapers are guilty imo.
TV is just as bad, I used to swear by the good old BBC and trusted it to give me the facts and not opinions, doesn't happen anymore. Now it's all about sound bites and sensationalism. I have even gone off Al Jazeera which used to be an excellent news service...
for example:
Recently a young girl was tragically murdered...her landlord was interviewed as part of the police inquiry. Because the old boy was a bit of a misfit, an ex-lecturer, he was hounded and vilified by the press...photographs of him printed in national newspapers and shown on tv....even though he was in fact completely innocent and no charges were brought. Subsequently another man was arrested and has been charged.
Some of the tabloids are STILL printing 'conspiracy theories' about the death of Princess Dianna (and boy did the press love her...) and kiss and tell stories appear daily in the press, wild claims about the EU and immigration are stuffed in every week...it isn't news is it? No wonder dreadful organisations like the National Front spring up when people actually believe this rubbish...at one point a Paediatrician was attacked because some uneducated idiots got paediatrician and paedophile mixed up....it's so irresponsible.
The media have their uses...revealing political corruption and reporting on international disasters (altho in the UK they only think that the public are only interested in any Brits affected by same)
It really needs sorting out...is it the same in other countries?
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 24, 2011 16:53:48 GMT
Too true, Cheery. Far too much reporting has nothing to do with journalism at all, being far more akin to over-the-backyard-fence gossiping.
And the supposedly sedate, straightforward papers stoop to sensationalism quite frequently. If you live in the southern part of a country, for instance, why is your newspaper reporting on a wino hotel fire in the far north unless it's for the shock/horror value?
If you are living in a place where major news is going on, you quickly realize that the wire service reports are only as good as the reporters sent to the scene. You also realize that some wire services don't even have reporters on site, relying instead on other wire services, which leads to the "everyone says so, thus it must be true" syndrome.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2011 17:02:56 GMT
The situation is pretty hypocritical in France. Journalists will go out of their way to act "correctly" about certain cases, but then they completely go overboard on others.
I think it is a case of if one newspaper or news programme breaks ranks and shows the dirt and horror, the others rush in to show that they have even worse evidence.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 24, 2011 17:08:33 GMT
Just one minute.
Let's stop and think why.
Why is the media now like it is?
The media, no matter whether it is the television or newsprint - are a business.
To survive they must appeal to the population. Give them what they want, not necessarily what is the unbiased and accurate truth.
The way the media is, is a direct reflection of what they think will appeal.
If they thought differently, that something different would be popular, like only news in the form of cartoons, then that's what they would do.
It is the public that drive what the media is like.
Ergo - it is your fault the media is like it is.
(Not mine because I never do anything wrong).
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Oct 24, 2011 17:54:40 GMT
It is the responsibility of the media to be unbiased and honest. They all have 'entertainment' pages, that's fine... but it seems to me that some of them are just sooo full of tish....as Bixa says, gossip and tittle-tattle (with the emphasis on 'tit')...
If a newspaper appeals to a certain demographic, then couldn't they just present the news in a way that explains things in a clear, sensible way to that demographic rather than leap on the most appealing angle that will just re-enforce bigotry in the readership? It's just silly.
I do buy the Guardian and sometimes the Independent and the Observer on a Sunday... that's probably because I lean to the left in my politics..but they do tend to be quite well rounded in their reporting ...and I can usually do the Guardian crossword ;D The best written newspaper here is prolly the Telegraph...but I loathe the politics (The Torygraph we call it) so I just can't buy it.... ;D
I spose it's all down to choice. Like Mark says...it's all my fault.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 24, 2011 18:13:55 GMT
My fault as well.
Or it was when I bought a newspaper or two.
The Daily Sport and Sunday Sport were the epitome of unbiased reporting.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Oct 24, 2011 18:19:53 GMT
Baaad Markipoo....tut tut (or should that be tit-tit ?)
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Post by Kimby on Oct 25, 2011 7:10:00 GMT
Print media is endangered by competition from the internet, and does what it has to to survive.
TV news has become increasingly entertainment- and celebrity- oriented, in the US at least.
Radio is dominated by talk show hosts who are so vitriolic it's hard to listen to them.
What's a person to do?
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Post by patricklondon on Oct 29, 2011 15:05:35 GMT
That's where I am always grateful to the BBC, and would go to the last ditch to defend both it as an institution and the impartiality rules. Though I have to say, I switched stations from its main news/speech channel because of the assumption that every political discussion has to be a knock-'em-'down and drag-'em-out punch-up between fixed positions. Thank goodness for Radio 3, I say (and listeners outside the UK can, I believe, listen to BBC radio stations on the internet)
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Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2011 15:24:52 GMT
For the same reason, I listen to France Inter in France and have done so since the day I moved here. I would highly recommend it to anybody who ever moves to France because it is a "generalist" station which gives equal room to news, modern or not-modern music, culture, sociology, politics and all of the other elements of our lives. I'm sure it is one of the principal elements that helped me to adapt to French life and understand it.
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Post by fumobici on Oct 29, 2011 21:14:38 GMT
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Post by rikita on Nov 6, 2011 21:44:23 GMT
i would suppose mark is right though - the media are the way they are because most people don't seem to want unbiased media. there are some better, more serious papers turning up now and then, showing more than one side of the story (not completely unbiased either - but that is impossible anyway - i would think the papers i am reading are unbiased, but that's because they are closest to the opinions i already have, a lot of other people would call them completely biased because they are leaning strongly to the left) - thing is, they seem to never sell as many copies as some others... same for tv, the more sensationalist a news program, the more people watch it...
as for the journalists having a responsibility - some might feel they do, but then, i know some journalists and at least here it is a very tough job to earn a living in, very few fixed employment, and increasingly badly paid - in the end, i suppose the need to pay the rent lets social conscience seem less important...
the only way to ensure those "responsibilities" of the press, would be by law i guess... the question is just if press regulated by the government is a good idea either...
the thing i could do, i suppose, would be to support those papers i find better and more informative than others financially, even if i read them online - which so far i don't - so i guess i am to blame...
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Post by hwinpp on Nov 7, 2011 13:58:01 GMT
I listen to BBC all the time in the car. Or ABC (Australian) if the BBC is having a moment.
Because of the news and because they broadcast less bullshit than the local, English language, commercial programmes.
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