Have you noticed how the news on TV only ever covers the three main parties? Occasionally you hear the odd bit about another party, but that's about it. Fair enough if you want to vote for any of the main parties, but what if you want to hear about the others? To me it looks like the three main parties have very similar policies to each other, so there's not exactly much choice between them. If you don't like one of them, you're not likely to want to vote for the other two either, they're one and the same. It seems to me the reason that news programmes focus on these three is because they don't mind which of them gets into power, because their policies are so similar that they will be equally as benificial (or at least don't pose a threat to) the companies who distribute the news, the people employed in the news industry and so on.
The worst bit is when TV journalists start putting their opinions across during news bulletins. They're meant to be impartial! The BBC seem to be particularly bad at this. Which is ironic seeing as they came up with the concept of public service broadcasting. I thought that at least part of the point of public service broadcasting is to inform the viewers? Even more frighteningly, it isn't what we are told that is the problem, it's what we are not told that stops the viewers from being able to make properly informed choices. Of course it can be difficult to tell whether or not you are being given all the information, because the less you know, the less you think there is to know.
10 comments:
Ugh! I hate the TV news. I don't EVER watch it if I can seriously avoid it. I hate it. I hate politics too - it's like a big game - don't they realise they're there to run the country, not to see how they can all out-do each other. I am certainly not voting for any of the major parties - they're all cack. I will vote Green if I can, or I'll spoil my paper.
As for the BBC News in particular, what I've seen of them seemed pretty good compared to ITV. ITV News is absolutely terrible. It's so sensationalist and ALWAYS puts an emotional slant on everything they report by adding a whole bunch of useless adjectives into sentences.
e.g. BBC - A man was robbed at knifepoint by a young man today, and the thief got away with his valueable watch
ITV - An old, unarmed, frail man was mercilessly robbed at knifepoint by a vile thief today, who made off laughing and shouting with the man's very valueable, priceless watch that his grandfather gave him and he wanted to give as a heartfelt gift to his grandson when he died.
I know what you mean about that ITV thing, they do love to go over the top. And then there's the whole Tonight with Trevor McDonald type programmes with all the over the top music and reconstructions and things.
Politics and the news are just so frustrating. I watch this stuff and then get angry with it. And then I try not to watch it, but my dad often puts the news on and then both of us shout at the TV! My mum says we should stop watching the news so much, I think she's right! It's so depressing.
haha! It's my Mum that puts the TV on and shouts at it. She likes to call Tony Blair "Pricky Pricky". I'm glad we have our own place now so I don't have to watch the news if I don't want to :o)
Hahaha that's funny. I think I should implement a news ban in our house.
My parents always insist on watching the news everytime it's on .....on every channel!!! And if the news isn't on and there's nothing much on telly, they put on News24 or Sky News or something.
It drives me insane. Hearing the news once a day is enough for me, otherwise it's like watching the same episode of Coronation Street repeatedly throughout the day.
Some days I don't even watch the news at all. It feels quite liberating.
Yeah that's what my dad does! blooming News 24! And you're right, it is the same news all the while. I mean you would have thought that different channels would have different news, but of course as all the news comes from the same few organisations, it just ends up being all the same.
I hate it when something big happens or an important person inconsideratly dies. The news hasn't got any real facts, but they have to be seen to be taking it seriously so we get hour on hour of "The pope/Queen mum/Ken Dodd's dad's dog is still dead - more detail when we can get some" - I suppose they don't want to seem disrespectful, but sheesh - don't bore ME to death too.
Yeah I know what you mean. Fair enough doing a certain amount of reporting on it, but when they do something like put on a really long newsflash which lasts ages and is just the same thing over and over again, it's a bit pointless. Especially on Sky news and News 24, it's always the same thing. They say they have news updates every 15 minutes or something, but it basically means it's the exact same thing repeated over and over again in an endless 24 hour cycle. And then they'll have an update, except it's hardly an update, just some inconsequential piece of information like, they were wearing a red jumper.
I think they are concerned about "those who have just joined us"
They don't bother about those who have been watching for the past hour and are sick of hearing the same thing over and over again with slightly different adjectives and the occasional extra superlative.
And, incidentally, those who would like to hear some other news, because there must be some, surely!!
P.S. I think my blog has died.
You're right, it's all about the new people. Actually it's like it's just surface gloss in a way, they hardly ever go into anything in any depth.
Your blog is dead? Can it be resuscitated?
The other thing that annoys me about the news is all the graphics everywhere, tickertape things, and update bits, and those annoying logo's in the corner. It's like they're trying to fill up as much room as possible.
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