News media pet peeves.

[Semperfi_dani]

Not sure where to put this, but seeing as how my specific pet peeve relates to international politics, i will put this here.

I think my number one pet peeve in new media, (tv, radio, print) in North America is that news is very local. By that i mean, i am annoyed by how little international news gets covered. I mean, sure we get the weather type news events for a little while (ie/ tsunami, earthquake), we get our daily middle east news (which people are tuning out more or less...i mean is it news anymore when an insurgant attack in iraq or the palestinians and the isreaili's going at it???). And less we forget celebrity news.

But my specific gripe is that news that is not part of the top three categories, but potentially have an impact gets little to no coverage (maybe 1 or 2 tv spots, and a page and half of newpaper coverage). In the meantime, for example, i will tune on to my tv news station in edmonton and get 5 minutes of coverage of traffic accidents or boxing day sales in Toronto or wherever. We will get news of a fire at a warehouse plant is some small town city in Indiana.

But whats going on in Africa? Asia? South America? Europe? I have no clue, because i have to spend 5 minutes watching the news that 1000's of people went shopping today. Or that our junior hockey team is playing. Or that some jo blow got into a fender bender accident in winnipeg.

If we didn't have the BBC, i would get even less....

 

[Calberty]

There's no need to be spoon fed. Especially by a propaganda machine like the CBC:

http://www.thebigproject.co.uk/news/

 

[Summer]

RE: News media pet peeves

Hell, I listen to the BBC, and read foreign newspapers online when I have time.

Then again, don't be too hard on the CBC, Calberty. It far surpasses most U.S. news outlets in quality of coverage. I make generous use of CBC Radio One online and on satellite radio, as well as of the CBC website. They cover even stories in the U.S. that our own media neglect.... I've heard things on the CBC that I've not gotten even a peep of on either U.S. sources OR the BBC.

 

[Semperfi_dani]

RE: News media pet peeves

Its not that I need to be spoonfed. Because of the internet, i can get as much info as I need. Its just that as a general pet peeve, i am annoyed at media coverage of international affairs. We as Canadians would be far better off as citizens if we were to get balanced important news, and not a 5 minute news segment on the fact that people shopped or got into fender benders clear across the country....

 

[Reverend Blair]

Not sure where to put this, but seeing as how my specific pet peeve relates to international politics, i will put this here.

That has a lot to do with what has happened to the media as the number of owners has shrunken, Semperfi. Most major papers and magazines used to keep stringers around the world. If the Globe and Mail or MacLean's or even the Winnipeg Free Press wanted coverage of an election in Bolivia or a riot in Nigeria, they had somebody on the ground there who knew the local situation and could cover the story. These people were sometimes freelancers and sometimes kept on a small retainer and paid more when they had a story published, but they were there. Larger stories usually drew in foreign correspondents on assignment who had a larger area to cover and only worked on the big stories, but were still familiar with the local situation and people. That doesn't happen anymore.

Now there are very few news organisations that keep stringers on staff. The CBC and BBC still assign foreign correspondents to posts abroad for the long term, and I believe the Globe and Mail has a single correspondent in Africa, but most of the foreign news is from Reuters or AP.

 

[Semperfi_dani]

RE: News media pet peeves

Thats the thing....we have access to Reuters, AP, and other media outlets like CNN, BBC... and they can't pickup a few stories to fill their air waves? I mean, i understand that the they have few journalists and so on...and that there are other parts of the world that demand more media attention...but dear god, would it hurt them to at least have maybe even a section or a slot devoted to international news (that is NOT middle east related?). I'm not saying i want to hear the ins and out of the swedish parliamentary system. But surely a few minutes out of the news cast to cover world news is not asking for too much?

My larger fear is that the younger generation will never have know what it was like to have a broad range of coverage...and that for them, important news will be who Angelina Jolie shags, and not whats going on in Africa. That our country will become as insular as the USA to the world around us. Its bad enough that Social Studies courses have cut the amount of world coverage....

 

[Reverend Blair]

RE: News media pet peeves

It isn't for a lack of people willing to do it. Hell, I would have gone when I was younger and I'd still consider shorter assignments if they were available. They aren't though. You can go freelance, but the markets are so limited that you likely won't make any money.

The real problem is the lack of competition. Look at Winnipeg. We used to have two real papers...the Free Press and the Journal. They were basically local dailies, but they had to cover things properly to compete with one another.

That meant a full bureau in Ottawa, another in Toronto, and people in every city in Canada; somebody in London; somebody in Washington; somebody in New York; somebody in South America; somebody in Africa. That's full time correspondents. They also needed a network of stringers to cover everything else.

Now we have the Free Press and the Sun. Both are right leaning, although the FP does try to keep some balance on the op-ed pages.

The FP has one guy in Ottawa. They have a freelancer who writes a column about Saskatchewan. Everything else not local is syndicated or comes off the wire. If there's a big story in Canada (sometimes even the US), they send one of the local reporters but they never have the contacts etc. because they just fly in.

The Winnipeg Sun...well, it's an okay paper for checking out your personal biodex and looking at the Sunshine Girl's boobies, but any news from outside of Winnipeg is the same thing you get in your Sun or Toronto gets in its Sun. It's terrible.

 

[TenPenny]

The Globe and Mail covers every single story in Atlantic Canada out of Halifax, fer chrissakes.

One thing I really like is on CBC radio one, after midnight, they have newsmagazine type items from around the world; Germany, Poland, Australia, South Africa, etc. That makes for some very interesting listening.

 

[jimmoyer]

In Philly last night I caught the "Coast to Coast" show with Art Bell playing
on a Windsor station. I forget the call letters.

Any 50,000 watt stations beaming down here
to the states ?

Is it cheap to get a place on XM as a mom and pop
radio station ?

Will internet radio and podcasting give the little
guy cheap access to the many ?

But the little guy still won't have the kind of content
a BBC and CBC can do.

And yet talking to people around the
world and getting them to send in
observations, interviews, stories could
provide content to a cheap internet
radio station.

 

[Colpy]

This is an easy one:

CBC bias.

In this election, they have been doing a better job, but their preference sure shows through. For instance, when Harper made his release speech on military policy, the CBC gave him 30 seconds, then split off in the middle to go to Paul Martin REANNOUNCING his handgun ban in Surrey B.C. for 5 minutes.

On the night of the debates, CBC news showed two pictures of the crowd outside the building in which the debates were held. In the first shot there was one sign prominently displayed; DOWN WITH HARPER. In the second shot there was one sign prominently displayed WE LOVE (heart symbol) PAUL MARTIN. That says it all about that.

Back in 2000, I was listening to CBC radio news on the way to work on Sunday, the day before the election. This 5 minute news cast included an item in which Eleanor Caplin(?) the Liberal cabinet minister, had called the Reform Party "the party of fascists and racists". On this ONE item in a 5 MINUTE newscast, the announcer managed to say "the Reform Party is the party of fascists and racists" FIVE times, always, of course quoting Caplin. Oh, BTW, the story had happened WEEKS before.

Before that Sunday I was a supporter of the CBC.

Since then, the quicker it is blasted into oblivion, the happier I am.

I now always refer to the CBC (even though I still watch CBC news) as "the Ministry of Truth" a la Orwell's 1984.

 

[Summer]

RE: News media pet peeves

Jim, that was CKLW. They boom into Cleveland, too (obviously, since there's nothing in the way but water and a few little islands). 'Course, our local WTAM 1100 also airs Art's show.

 

[Colpy]

I just noticed this was on the International thread.

Okay

The CBC bias.

In the Middle East, people that blow up families sitting to dine in a restaurant in Israel are called "militants" not "terrorists"

'nuff said.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Pet peeves;

Insufficient (balanced) International news.

Excessive focus on sensational, gossip type items. ( sometimes the media seems like the national inquirer ....only televised. .....think CNN )

Excessive drama and insufficient facts. /factoids, and real INFORMATION.

Real News should at least have equal time with Celebrity gossip news.

Keep News.......information and NEWS......not "entertainment"... with cosmetically altered talking heads.

 

[Semperfi_dani]

RE: News media pet peeves

Ocean..add to that the endless row of pundits that have replaced integral journalist commentary with crap and drivel that they got out of their ass apparantly. THe best is when they yell over eachother so you can't hear a word of their bullshit anyays.

ooh..and can we my excitement when headline news is about a celebrity..and like 6 stories after..its "oh by the way, there are more genocides and kids starving in africa....we will share the details after we reveal what Angelina Jolie had for breakfast this morning". Ok..slight exageration..but not by much.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Re: RE: News media pet peeves

Ocean..add to that the endless row of pundits that have replaced integral journalist commentary with crap and drivel that they got out of their ass apparantly. THe best is when they yell over eachother so you can't hear a word of their bullshit anyays.

ooh..and can we my excitement when headline news is about a celebrity..and like 6 stories after..its "oh by the way, there are more genocides and kids starving in africa....we will share the details after we reveal what Angelina Jolie had for breakfast this morning". Ok..slight exageration..but not by much.

you got that taped. ( and no exaggeration either.. :wink:

forgot another peeve.....

when they finally do settle on a story.......they repeat it , and repeat it .......until it has been hashed and rehashed to the point.......no one knows what the original story was anymore. Overkill.........doesn't quite describe it. (think runaway bride.....and others in same category.... ) If it were not so pathetic .......one would think some of this was comedy.... :wink:

 

[Semperfi_dani]

RE: News media pet peeves

Or when as soon as a story breaks, they have the full musical montage opening with images and the tagline/title.

CNN is the worst.

 

[Semperfi_dani]

RE: News media pet peeves

Ok..im on a roll today. How about when they do have a story, they send a comprehensive news team to cover every concievable angle. Now, its one thing when they are domestic stories....but when they are international combat stories, why not send in international correspondants. Pardon me if i don't quite take Matt Lauer/Ann Currie and others seriously.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Re: RE: News media pet peeves

Ok..im on a roll today. How about when they do have a story, they send a comprehensive news team to cover every concievable angle. Now, its one thing when they are domestic stories....but when they are international combat stories, why not send in international correspondants. Pardon me if i don't quite take Matt Lauer/Ann Currie and others seriously.

I like your thinking.... keep going.. Doing very well so far..

( agree about cnn..........they are the WORST......there is NOT a story that they have not bastardized .

Would put CNN as my top pet peeve. :wink:

 

[jimmoyer]

I think we have more choices and more access to
alternatives than ever before in media history.

With so many alternatives it may seem we have
less investigative research, but it may be the same
amount of investigative research has remained
steady while the expansion of alternative sources
has increased.

Funny how it seems that the work of news gatherers
seemed more reliable back then.

But I think that's a mirage.

If you want to know more, you can find it much
more easily today than yesteryear.

And now for the biggest pet peeve: they tease
you about a story you want to hear "coming up."

It works.

But I gotta go through several commercial cycles
to get to hear it.

 

[Reverend Blair]

I think we have more choices and more access to
alternatives than ever before in media history.

Then you think wrong, Jimmy. While there are more sources of alternative media, the mainstream is still where most people get their news. The mainstream media in the United States is controlled by six corporations.