Part 2: Some news titbits from the last days of September
News and Sensationalistic crap! What is the real role of BBC World Service News?
Sensationalistic crap is the User Comment (reply) from one reader to an article by Brian Ross of ABC News (see above: “..Brian Ross, the King of sensationalistic crap…”). Since I am now on the subject of news I would like to look at the news reporting of the BBC World Service. At least mainly the radio form since there is a major and important difference between the radio form and the internet form! The BBC World Service has programmes which it calls Newshour (in actual fact they have a long and confusing list of programmes that deal with News or news items or items they class as currant affairs!). Now since this programme (and others that use the term news) is called Newshour you might expect it to be purely about reporting news. Well this is the problem, what exactly is news, or when do we or should we call it news?
Well, unlike me, the BBC World Service would seem to have no problem here. They often proudly brag about their “impartial” “unbiased” “up-to-the-minute” “independent” “reliable” “trustworthy” “dependable” “around-the-world” news service. However the BBC and I would seem to (seriously) disagree not only about what constitutes the meaning or term “news” but also disagree about many of the qualities they brag about!
Besides the fact that in my opinion the BBC World Service News could be renamed to be called the British Broadcasting the Voice of American Politics (funnily enough the same has been said about Tony Blair, and the BBC is dependent on Government money!) there is this serious question as to what constitutes news!
In actual fact the majority of the time of a programme like Newshour is not filled with reporting actual (pure) news but with opinions or personal views. These personal views and opinions come from the BBC’s own reporters or from other people. These other people can range from people on the street to people the BBC tell us are the experts or leading experts or people qualified in some form. Often these views and opinions are called assessments or other such important and significant (a word also used often) terms to give them some weight. But in the end they remain the views, opinions, or assessments or one single person. The icing to the cake is given by the news reader’s comments and questions which in the end determine how it looks or the impression it gives, or leaves behind at the end. More recently the BBC have also started adding, or reading out, listeners email comments to a particular subject matter of these news programmes (and other programmes).
And this is supposed to be news?
Needless to say the BBC determines this kind of news. They determine what kind of news gets the focus, what gets reported and what not, who the people are that get to give their comment, (expert) opinion and what type of opinion they are going to have, which listeners emails get read out and at which particular (important) moment of the programme, they determine in interviews if it is to be an aggressive (enemy type – go deep, get them to say something they will regret) or soft glove (friend – don’t rock the boat and be too hard or go too deep) interview and who should get what (and why), in other words they have almost full control of these kind of news reporting.
Radio broadcasting was used during the Second World War against the Nazis in every possible way. To spread propaganda, convey secret messages, give confusing or miss-information, to spread unease or fear amongst the German population and so on. No doubt a lot of expertise was built up during this time. The development of psychology has also helped in the technique of radio sending just as much as it has in such things as advertisements, or film and so on.
Most psychologists are aware of the power of the way a word is spoken out, and with what tones where; how often a word is used and at what moment; the construction of a sentence….there are so many ways of influencing, or manipulating, or expressing so that certain ideas, pictures, views, opinions come across as the strongest and are left in the head of the listener (or viewer, or reader, or person) the longest and strongest. After all psychologists have studied and still study closely this subject and its workings on the human mind and human behaviour, most of which happens at the subconscious level.
I have often wondered, in this day and age of investigative reporting, that no reporter has ever taken a close and microscopic look at the workings of BBC World Service News, but perhaps that is getting too close to home? Perhaps there is some unwritten rule not to investigate your own kind, opening a can of worms, on news reporting and losing all that revenue or power or whatever!
But talking of power I certainly think that the BBC has a lot of it. Their propaganda has certainly convinced a lot of people around the world that they are an “impartial” “unbiased” “up-to-the-minute” “independent” “reliable” “trustworthy” “dependable” “around-the-world” news service.
(As a note of interest: Microsoft (another house of power) and the BBC have agreed to work together! Now what does that tell us?)
Forgive me, but it will take more than the sprinkling of holy water to convince me.
Holy (hot) Water
Well it was more like hot water than holy water that the Pope walked into with his comments, but despite the Pope saying he meant no disrespect I still fail to understand why he chose to quote a 14th Century Christian emperor, after all it is not the kind of thing you find just lying about and surely since then (or before then) so many things must of have been written on the subject of (different) religions, so why pick this particular thing? Oh well, let sleeping dogs lie (but apparently not always the cash)!
The Catholic Church seems to be getting into hot (or holy) water quite a lot in recent times. There was the hot water of the sex scandals and now the police (Delray Beach Police Department) have charged two retired priests with grand theft. Slush fund accounts (secret bank accounts), condos, gambling trips, cars, high school tuition payments for a girlfriend's son are all part of the juicy (holy) details. What were those Ten Commandments once again?
Sensationalistic crap is the User Comment (reply) from one reader to an article by Brian Ross of ABC News (see above: “..Brian Ross, the King of sensationalistic crap…”). Since I am now on the subject of news I would like to look at the news reporting of the BBC World Service. At least mainly the radio form since there is a major and important difference between the radio form and the internet form! The BBC World Service has programmes which it calls Newshour (in actual fact they have a long and confusing list of programmes that deal with News or news items or items they class as currant affairs!). Now since this programme (and others that use the term news) is called Newshour you might expect it to be purely about reporting news. Well this is the problem, what exactly is news, or when do we or should we call it news?
Well, unlike me, the BBC World Service would seem to have no problem here. They often proudly brag about their “impartial” “unbiased” “up-to-the-minute” “independent” “reliable” “trustworthy” “dependable” “around-the-world” news service. However the BBC and I would seem to (seriously) disagree not only about what constitutes the meaning or term “news” but also disagree about many of the qualities they brag about!
Besides the fact that in my opinion the BBC World Service News could be renamed to be called the British Broadcasting the Voice of American Politics (funnily enough the same has been said about Tony Blair, and the BBC is dependent on Government money!) there is this serious question as to what constitutes news!
In actual fact the majority of the time of a programme like Newshour is not filled with reporting actual (pure) news but with opinions or personal views. These personal views and opinions come from the BBC’s own reporters or from other people. These other people can range from people on the street to people the BBC tell us are the experts or leading experts or people qualified in some form. Often these views and opinions are called assessments or other such important and significant (a word also used often) terms to give them some weight. But in the end they remain the views, opinions, or assessments or one single person. The icing to the cake is given by the news reader’s comments and questions which in the end determine how it looks or the impression it gives, or leaves behind at the end. More recently the BBC have also started adding, or reading out, listeners email comments to a particular subject matter of these news programmes (and other programmes).
And this is supposed to be news?
Needless to say the BBC determines this kind of news. They determine what kind of news gets the focus, what gets reported and what not, who the people are that get to give their comment, (expert) opinion and what type of opinion they are going to have, which listeners emails get read out and at which particular (important) moment of the programme, they determine in interviews if it is to be an aggressive (enemy type – go deep, get them to say something they will regret) or soft glove (friend – don’t rock the boat and be too hard or go too deep) interview and who should get what (and why), in other words they have almost full control of these kind of news reporting.
Radio broadcasting was used during the Second World War against the Nazis in every possible way. To spread propaganda, convey secret messages, give confusing or miss-information, to spread unease or fear amongst the German population and so on. No doubt a lot of expertise was built up during this time. The development of psychology has also helped in the technique of radio sending just as much as it has in such things as advertisements, or film and so on.
Most psychologists are aware of the power of the way a word is spoken out, and with what tones where; how often a word is used and at what moment; the construction of a sentence….there are so many ways of influencing, or manipulating, or expressing so that certain ideas, pictures, views, opinions come across as the strongest and are left in the head of the listener (or viewer, or reader, or person) the longest and strongest. After all psychologists have studied and still study closely this subject and its workings on the human mind and human behaviour, most of which happens at the subconscious level.
I have often wondered, in this day and age of investigative reporting, that no reporter has ever taken a close and microscopic look at the workings of BBC World Service News, but perhaps that is getting too close to home? Perhaps there is some unwritten rule not to investigate your own kind, opening a can of worms, on news reporting and losing all that revenue or power or whatever!
But talking of power I certainly think that the BBC has a lot of it. Their propaganda has certainly convinced a lot of people around the world that they are an “impartial” “unbiased” “up-to-the-minute” “independent” “reliable” “trustworthy” “dependable” “around-the-world” news service.
(As a note of interest: Microsoft (another house of power) and the BBC have agreed to work together! Now what does that tell us?)
Forgive me, but it will take more than the sprinkling of holy water to convince me.
Holy (hot) Water
Well it was more like hot water than holy water that the Pope walked into with his comments, but despite the Pope saying he meant no disrespect I still fail to understand why he chose to quote a 14th Century Christian emperor, after all it is not the kind of thing you find just lying about and surely since then (or before then) so many things must of have been written on the subject of (different) religions, so why pick this particular thing? Oh well, let sleeping dogs lie (but apparently not always the cash)!
The Catholic Church seems to be getting into hot (or holy) water quite a lot in recent times. There was the hot water of the sex scandals and now the police (Delray Beach Police Department) have charged two retired priests with grand theft. Slush fund accounts (secret bank accounts), condos, gambling trips, cars, high school tuition payments for a girlfriend's son are all part of the juicy (holy) details. What were those Ten Commandments once again?
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