Entertainment For Lively Minds
Is everybody happy with the news at the moment?
I'm over the channel at the moment and for the past week I have watched the most-watched news programme in Europe on TF1 at 8 and then later, the news at 10 from the UK. A few things have struck me:
- In France they like to lead the news with a "human" story as opposed to big global events. Over the past week, we have had a baby who was stolen from a hospital and then found and a house fire which killed off a few generations of the same family. The BBC rarely leads on anything like this, despite them becoming big, talked-about stories when they do (McCanns, Karen Matthews, etc.)
- Over here they tell you the bad news and then move on with it. In the UK they can't just tell you house prices have gone down or unemployment has gone up, they have to dwell on it for five minutes.
- Here they don't have to ask their business/political/security/royal/entertainment correspondent for an opinion on everything, they just tell you what's happened. Maybe they credit their viewers with an ability to form their own opinion.
Which approach do you prefer? I for one am getting a bit tired of the UK news and long for a return to the good old days when they just let you know what happened, rather than trying to make celebrities out of the reporters.
- More from Simon Ford.
- Login or register to post comments
-
Here is the news
It's surprising how culturally specific TV news is. Following the Mumbai massacre I was looking on the Times Of India site to see how they were interpreting events there. I was very disturbed by the fact that their film reports of the event had a music track on them. It was as if the producers wanted to add extra drama.
What
was the music track? Anything interesting?
British News Media
is guily of overkill regardless of whether it is good news ie. 2008 Olympics or Bad News ie. current economic mess. Frankly I get the impression with the current economic news that the worse the situation gets the more gleefully they report it. They even exaggerate the news to make it sound even more scary ie. so and so to axe 10,000 jobs and then when you check it is over 3 years and over 5 continents. There is no doubt the current crisis is severe - after all you don't normally get Governments giving you money back - but the Media has a duty to report it accurately and without sensationalism. Truthfully I am surprised anyone invests in News Media corporations these days - you can get all you need from the web. News programmes on TV should be banned and Newspaper circulation figures are on a downward spiral. Serves the pathetic bastards right!!
A pathetic bastard writes
A lot of what you're getting from the web are the products of these self-same news corporations. Just because people don't want to pay for them doesn't mean they don't value them.
Try watching US News
....and you will long for British news programmes.
I watch BBC America over here (Houston).
CNN, Fox News etc. are ridiculous....and the local news is just there to scare you into staying in your house.
Bad news
Some things I don't like about our TV news:
A reporter for every little thing (as you say) whose meagre bit of information could easily have been conveyed by newsreader but they have to have someone on location, even if it means standing outside a house/in a road that could be anywhere.
The newsreader themselves being on location to present the news. Nothing of value is added by this - it's just a gimmick. So you've been flown at great expense to stand in Baghdad, New Orleans etc. For what purpose?
Jumping to conclusions - because this has happened, this could follow, therefore we are all doomed, announced in overly dramatic tone.
The panic-inducing intro ...
Time was, the news programme always played the intro music before giving any headlines, and the only time they told you a headline first (which was so important that the music couldn't wait), it genuinely was important: Iranian Embassy siege etc.
Now, every single news programme has not one but several headlines being announced in stern and concerned tones, as if all these things are poised to destroy all life as we know it. Like who the X-Factor winner was.
Give us a break ...
You think it's bad...
...look at what local newspapers are doing with videos on their sites - had BBC Local gone ahead we'd be having reports from the corner shop - 'Man traps old fella in fly', 'Lady buys a hat' type of stuff, that for some reason they think we want and need.