woodlanddecay.com

Tag: Media

  • Listening Exercises

    Listening Exercises

    Ah the rhetoric of listening exercises…

    The news media is like a William Burroughs cut-up these days.  I tend to surf many news websites and absorb bits of news as I skim the surface.  My deep engagement is missing, but it is how it is at present.  In my head, I mix up the coalition which initiated the military response in Libya with the conflict in terms of demonstrations in this country and the coalition government who are currently in power. It has all become sadly mixed up as I hear about demonstrators being shot dead and the coalition sending in fighter planes. It might be old age, but I feel like we are living through revolutionary times.  Although in all honesty some of the revolutions are the revolutions of my mind.

    In this country the coalition government have been unequivocal in asserting that they would not address demonstrators concerns.  We have to be grateful that we live in a democracy.  Strangely, the levels of public and professional  hostility towards the NHS privatisation have resulted in a listening exercise.  Apparently they are going to pause, listen and reflect. As they say I hear what you are saying, moving forward, blah, blah, blah.  And then I read that BBC Radio Question Time was cancelled because of a death on the railway line stopped politicians and the audience getting to the venue.  Another human tragedy. Questions go unasked, despite the highly publicised listening exercises, we are not really hearing the misery.

  • Rolling News Coverage of the TUC Demonstration

    Rolling News Coverage of the TUC Demonstration

    This afternoon I found myself watching the rolling news coverage of the TUC  demonstration in London.  The early reports from the TUC suggested  100,000  people on the march whereas the police were claiming that 250,000 people were marching. This statistical discrepancy amused me.   Before my arthritis, I used to march regularly only to get home and watch the TV news during which the police frequently underplayed the number of marchers.  Back in the eighties the police worked very closely with and for the conservative government. That seems to have changed with the Con-Dem coalition government repeatedly questioning the work, pay and pensions of the police.   We are living through interesting times.

    In watching the demonstration on TV I felt like I had taken a wrong turn, but anyway a bit of me was there.  The march was a huge success and as the afternoon progressed figures from both sides were revised upwards towards half a million.  As well as the TUC stewarded march, there were separate direct actions today which appeared to interest the media far more.  At about 1.50pm today I was watching a speech by the Leader of the opposition party Ed Miliband on the BBC news channel. He was one of the key speakers at Hyde Park along with Brendan Barber.  As I watched the speech the BBC split the screen in two and without explanation began screening live coverage of black block anarchists attacking Top Shop and Top Man.  The outcome of this clever BBC editing was that in half the screen you could see Ed Miliband speaking whilst in the other half of the screen there were very vivid  scenes of civil disorder. The combined sound and vision was very powerful media manipulation. I hoped the BBC might try and correct their own breach  of impartiality, but no joy.  They then upped the stakes filling the screen with the Top Shop/Top Man footage, whilst maintaining the soundtrack of Ed Miliband speaking about the social harm that the cuts were doing and the danger within the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives attempts to create a divided society.   The juxtaposition of a legitimate political leader being mashed up with scenes of civil disorder was deeply troubling.

    Back in the eighties when I was studying in Sheffield there was a radical grouping known as the Glasgow University Media Group. They highlighted how trade unionists were invariably misrepresented by the media.  As I passively watched the news today I yearned for more honest media which did not represent the narrow interests of a dodgy coalition and their wealthy backers.