Shaping the news
- 30 Apr 06, 11:30 AM
It looks like actor Richard Dreyfuss will pull no punches when he address this week's We Media conference in London. In an he lays into the media for creating what he calls "shaped news." What he means is that the mainstream media creates a version of events which is out of sync with what people really want.
Dreyfuss seems particularly upset with the fast-paced, instant, 24/7 world of news we now live in, where events appear on TV screens as they happen. "There is no time to pause, no room to think," he said.
It will be interesting to see how a roomful of mainstream media representatives, such as the head of the 主播大秀 and boss of Reuters, respond when Dreyfuss challenges them at the We Media forum.
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Oh wow, I am so looking forward to this! It'll be great to see someone challenging the attendees to think a bit harder about what they are doing, why and how. It's so easy for big media to pay lip service to change, to pretend on the surface of it that they are taking note of what is happening and reacting accordingly, but to deep down not move a muscle to make the necessary adjustments. I shall look forward to seeing Dreyfuss give them a well-deserved kick in the pants.
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The media isnt only out of touch with what people want it's out of touch with how things are. Take Iraq as one example. Look at the 主播大秀 website on Iraq and question how much news out of the country it is actually reporting. Frankly it's woefully inadequate. Only yesterday I took a step into the blogosphere and wrote my first blog on similar lines to this issue.
If the mainstream media wants support it better start following instead of leading people down blind alleys. To borrow a quote, "The media鈥檚 power is frail. Without the people鈥檚 support, it can be shut off with the ease of turning a light switch.鈥 鈥 Corazon Aquino
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I think the title of this post sums it up for me; "shaping the news" is exactly what I think the main stream media has become expert in. 'I' see more sensationalism than substance and more flippancy than seriousness in 'their' coverage of news. The recent coverage of the Prescott vs Clarke stories is a good example, how many more news 'column-inches' were/are devoted to a 'repeat-story about 'Prescott' (for Prescott, read Major, etc. etc.) than to the very (in my view) serious failings of a major Government office/department.
This is just one reason why 'I' think that 'Blogs' if not already, will become much more, 'the epee' in news gathering and publishing, focusing in on real and relevant points regardless of how the main stream media thinks it is covering a story/subject.
Like Andrew Hirst, I did not 'blog' before the start of this year (06) and only started one to cover some general topics, but as I look back over the various posts, I have become more serious and more vocal about various issues.
A few years ago, someone said that 'Desk Top Publishing' (DTP) would serve up 'Personal Publishing for all'. I think that Blogs and the various other elements of 'Web 2.0' will affect us much more than DTP and I think that the 'community' will be much better off for it.
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