Not talking about Tony Abbott here (well not directly), more
about the state of our media. Unlike the new NRL rules, I
will give our Journalists the benefit of the doubt.
News is important, it shapes how we vote and how our country is
run. To my untrained eye and experience when it comes to
important issues, it seems that Facebook is more
lightweight, Twitter is more passionate, Google + is still an
undecided work in progress, Newspapers are selective and
conservative and Television news (in general) is the lowest
common denominator. These mediums are all going for
particular markets, yet, it seems to me, that the biggest market
out there is not being serviced ethically at all, The
punter, as in, the busy silent majority.
I like social media, love how it can sometimes rally for causes,
but when it comes to actually setting agendas for discussion or
highlighting politics in this country, the newspapers rule,
particularly as the news is normally just bite-size highlights of
the news of the day according to the Newspapers. This was
brought home to me at a recent party we had. We have a good
cross-section when it comes to our friends, single, middle-aged,
30’s, older families, younger families, single mothers, divorced,
some wealthier than others, some working for companies, some
self-employed, you name it... the only things they have in
common is they are all busy with life in general. This
means the only news they actually see is the odd paper left on a
table at lunch-time, the good old weekend paper and the nightly
news (though not religiously), therefore their perceptions on
Government are well and truly formed via the mainstream
media.
For a number of years I have felt very let down by the mainstream
media. Too often I have felt they are making the news, not
reporting it, too often they are ‘selective’ in their reporting,
“Telling” the punter what is important though not explaining
“Why” it is important? This though is where I will give
them the benefit of the doubt that there is not really some sort
of conspiracy to keep us all dumber, but they are in fact victims
of their own culture, just like any other professional
group. On the weekend at a family Christmas lunch I was
talking to my cousin about the issues with so many foreign
doctors here. It was enlightening as to just how unaware my
cousin was as to how actual patients felt. Suffice it to
say that the people she associates with both professionally and
socially, mixing almost exclusively in the medical profession,
means she rarely actually just talks to punters. It is not
being elitist, just the way it rolls in a busy non-stop
profession and had not actually stopped to consider what the
‘average punter’ actually felt or experienced, more concerned
with the details of the profession.
I would say that Journalists are most likely very similar,
particularly with the 24 hour news cycle that we now have.
As they are very much in the ‘know’ politically they sort of
assume everyone else is aware as well. I have spoken to a
few Journalists and they seem to assume that the general public
is a lot savvier. The mantra of “Julia is a
Liar” is a relevant example. This has been
repeated so often that it is now seemingly a ‘fact’. When
you actually ask a punter – “Why is Julia a Liar?” –
They can’t actually give you a reason, just, “Well it is
always in the news & papers...”. In fact it is not
what the media always say, it is just what they hear the
opposition saying and the media don’t call them on it, they
choose to show or reprint that part of a press conference,
thereby perpetuating it. From what I have actually seen she
is no more dishonest or honest than any other politician.
Most Journo’s tend to agree as well, though pre-cursor with
“That is just ‘strategy’ or ‘the political game’”,
“People aren’t stupid, they can make their own minds up”
– actually no they can’t, they may not be stupid but they are
time poor, therefore ‘the journalist’ shapes their opinion.
Obviously the Journo’s and the Pollies are all in on this
‘spin game’, unfortunately the punter is being
taken for a mug as they don’t actually know the rules and are
innocent bystanders. This is a serious problem, punter
opinion in general is "If it is in the News, then it
must be true!" A few examples from the recent
barbie will illustrate what I mean.
Note, all these people do live on the Sunshine Coast, though the
majority come from other areas of the country or overseas, The
are the “punter” , the average family, worker, busy person, you
know the one who is working long hours, stressed about
job/kids/family/money with no time for detail or dreaded
'context'...
Slipper is Bad
Yep, that is the majority opinion. When asked why...
“Well the Sunshine Daily always has him on the front page,
they wouldn’t do that if he was not bad” or “He is
dodgy”. When I piped up with, "you know he has
been investigated a few times and never been charged with
anything, plus many many MP’s have at some stage had to pay back
expenses due to incorrect reporting", the consensus seemed
to be, “Are you sure about that? He must be good for
it, the papers would not keep calling him ‘Slippery Pete’ if he
was not dodgy”?
Brough is Good
Also the pub poll majority opinion. When asked why...
“Well the Sunshine Daily always write good articles about
him, so he must be good, they don’t bother to write about
others”. When I mention some of the disparaging
comments from Rares in the Ashby case, and this is very very
important for Journalists to note, the majority comment was
basically “Well it must have not really been a big deal what
he said as if it was something dodgy then the papers would be
reporting it?” or “well the papers are pretty quick to
pick up a scandal, even if it is not important, and they are not
bothering to mention it all so are you really sure that your not
just getting your information from some lefty blog?”
When I say no, I actually read the full report, after the
comments of “OMG you need to get a life” it then went on
to... “Well obviously that Judge was out to get Brough
because if he really has done something dodgy, well wouldn’t it
be all over the papers, particularly the Daily?”
Are you seeing a theme here? If it is important to
Australia, if we need to know, it will be in the News!
Journalists have serious power in informing the general
public. In a region like the Sunshine Coast we can’t do
much about the monopoly the local paper has (hoping one day this
region will be better connected with more actually getting their
news online instead), in the meantime, though they are not the
only influence the TV News takes when it comes to reporting the
news... Maybe, like other professions our Journalistic
fraternity should spend a week or so a year with the plebs, back
on the streets, interacting with average joes to become
aware of what the public’s real concerns are, what the real
attention span is, most importantly how much background knowledge
the punter really does have (not much, most would not even be
able tell you what our Senate does!) thereby reminding the
Journalist just how much power they actually do wield. As
the famous saying goes: “With great power, comes great
responsibility”.
We don't have time to ask the questions, hell, half the time we
don't even know what questions need to be asked. You, the
journalist have the inside running on that, so please, maybe
remember us, or remind your editors that we exist, we need more
info and we need you to be highlighting what is important to us,
all the time and without bias...
Then again, I am just a punter, hanging out with other punters,
so what would I know?
