Hard News: Biting back at Bill
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I've not watched the TV news for a few years now, watched it a few weeks back and wow, it seemed really surreal, for a second I thought I was high.
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How do you feel now?
Was that hard?
Are you going to apologise?
Can you tell us what you think of it?I am Juha Saarinen, and you are reading my comment on Public Address. Good night!
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Hi Rob
In slightly less ranting mode - I realise the whole name thing is probably a "directive". The thing about it for me is it is so obviously a marketing ploy.
I guess what was being attempted was to create a journo/reporter (I think there is a distinction) who was as famous as say - Walter Cronkite.
But what they missed was that the really famous journalists became famous because of the quality of their research and reporting. In short it was the CONTENT that made the name famous.
What marketers believe is that they can make the public believe the content is good if they make the name famous. And of course it's much much cheaper to say someones name a thousand times than it is to hire people who can and will do research.
Or in other words marketing is cheaper than content.
Now that might be fine for some things, but for news and current affairs on our TV.......
cheers
Bart -
Shouldn't that be..
I'm juuuuuuhhhhaaaaaa Saarinen....
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3410,
Kenny Brockelstein ----> Kent Brockman
NZBC ----> TVNZ -
I like my vowels short though... and Cronkite makes me think of pulmonary issues, not current affairs.
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How do you feel now?
Was that hard?
Are you going to apologise?
Can you tell us what you think of it?I can recall as a kid in 1989 when Monica Cantwell was murdered on Mt Maunganui, her mother was interviewed on TV by Susan Wood, who inquired "Were you surprised?". It struck me then as it strikes me now that there is something seriously wrong with TVNZ if that's the best that they can come up with.
I was dismayed to learn over the weekend that Susan is apparently returning to TVNZ.
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The fact that you sat at an outdoor table at SPQR doesn't make you a celeb. It makes you a poseur.
It makes you a smoker.
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"Americas Funniest Home Videos" has taken over my house at 6pm...I can't go back now.
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Sundays were commercial free
Recently I was browsing through the Broadcasting Act and I was surprised to discover that TV is still commercial-free on Sunday mornings - between 6am and midday.
I guess I should get out of bed earlier on the weekend.
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"...If they needed to fly to Los Angeles to do a piece to camera in front of a building, it seemed, they just did it."
Any particular story in mind?
Yes, but I damned if I can remember what it was. I just recall sitting in front of the TV wondering how much that piece to camera cost.RB's response implies there was only 'one' occassion. There were so many it's no wonder he (and I) can't recall specifics. Mr Grigg has detailed some instances.
In a similar vein, I have often wondered what the point of 'crossing live' to a reporter at Auckland's viaduct has to do with a Wellington story. Ditto with health reporters outside an Auckland hospital to discuss a ChCh hospital issue. If they just want back ground wallpaper can't they use a blue screen? Less bad (because I presume its cheaper) is when they cross live to a reporter who is (for those that know) clearly standing on the TVNZ balcony with 'the city' behind him/her.
I was dismayed to learn over the weekend that Susan is apparently returning to TVNZ.
This will not happen, for reasons that can't be discussed. If she does get the job I will drop this psuedenum. (BTW - how can I change it? It seemed funny at the time I registered but now I just look like I have no self esteem)
I do think this is (and possibly quite rightly the only way to do it) a plan to change the culture (and matching salaries) before introducing the 24 Hr News Channel. As RB noted earlier, I think they'll start rehiring late in the year, at a new rate. Nothing like unemployment to make ournos see sense. TV3 rates will be the benchmark -
If anyone is interested in our declining news services, they need look no further than the US to be reassured. (Where's that sarcasm emoticon?)
New(ish) CBS News Anchor Katie Couric does a first-person 'personal notebook' where she shares some folksy stuff to charm middle America. Unfortunately she doesn't actually write it herself, and one of her minions plagiarised a piece on 'I remember my first library card'. She has also just reserrected the Obama/Medrassa lie; as if she was unaware that it had been thoroughly repudiated.
If you want more info then click here and scroll thru to the various stories on Couric.
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Nobody Important -
I have often wondered what the point of 'crossing live' to a reporter at Auckland's viaduct has to do with a Wellington story.
Agreed, and I've often wondered why they label the left and right screens with the locations, rather than with the name of the person they're interviewing.
this psuedenum ... It seemed funny at the time
Don't worry, you're unique, just like the rest of us!
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Sort of off topic - but imho, cool nonetheless - particularly if Keith and other sundries are going to go pure digital and deliver.
Brought to you by the fellows who make Oakley sunglasses - and kickass in so many ways.
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If anyone is interested in our declining news services, they need look no further than .......
tonights (Monday) One network news late* edition. Sandwiched in the middle of their story on the bogus rape claimant was a brief description of the rapist who attacked a 12 y.o. in Hastings.
I couldn't freaking believe it! At first I thought it was a technical error but no, they obviously didn't have enough time to run the Hastings story so they just did a jumpcut to the Hastings rapist and then continued with the bogus rape claimant.
Gee, I hope no-one gets confused and thinks the Hastings 12 y.o. is also making it up.
VERY SLOPPY TVNZ! (Yes, I'm shouting. Do you think they're listening?)* I didn't see the 6pm bulletin so I don't know if they ran the same item in that bulletin.
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"Americas Funniest Home Videos" has taken over my house at 6pm...I can't go back now.
It's re-runs of Who Wants to be a Millionaire (UK) on Prime for us. I resolved (suddenly) to stop watching the 6om news about 2 years ago, after one fluffy kitten story too many. We now tune in only if something particularly dramatic and camera-worthy has happened.
Have reached the conclusion that not enough really happens in NZ to justify even the 20-odd minutes of news (as opposed to sport, weather and celebrity scuttle-butt) one might find in the commercial news hour.
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I was surprised to discover that TV is still commercial-free on Sunday mornings
Still no reason to get up early, Robyn. It doesn't prevent the broadcaster advertising its own crap.
Tried to watch The Aviator over Easter (at Mother in Law's, in the country, not much TV) and it was spoiled by a break every ten minutes to advertise Dancing with Fuckwits or something.
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merc,
The old Network! Promos, the silly voice-overs..."and next we see why babies need food and where belly button fluff comes from, only on TV Chew.
30 minute show,
15 minutes actual show
8 minutes ads
7 minutes network promos
Priceless. -
Sunday mornings are ad-free.... except of course for the blatant and VERY extensive advertorial that's inserted in the NZ on Air funded What Now- 'cos our kids don't get enough exposure to ads at other times, see? </rant>
Nobody Important- I saw that item and was similarly dismayed- a bogus rape claim is just so obviously a much bigger story than a 12-year-old raped in school grounds?!?
But I've not looked to TV to get my news fix for over a decade- nope, not even TV3. Nor do I get much from the newspapers. National Radio is still a public broadcaster with some cred, and then there are magazines and the net. But even on the net, I don't tend to find the big papers- NYT, Washington Post, etc (I do like the Independent) very worthwhile- I prefer Scoop or the news/opinion mix of say, TalkingPointsMemo.
I'd be interested to see a poll of the (quite unrepresentative!) news habits of PA readers- perhaps accompanied by a 1-10 rating for the different services! ? -
An old mate of mine did his doctoral thesis on television news and came to the conclusion that essentially television news is a soap opera that serves to reinforce the viewers' understanding of the world.
This is why when you go on holiday out of range of the news, and then come back, it's hard to "get into", just as if you had missed a couple of months of your favourite soap. Likewise, once you are out of it, one news broadcast seems much the same as the other.
Hence the ire of mainstream news figures in the US towards The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. They claim that those shows are merely chewing up serious news for entertainment, but in fact that's what "news" programmes do too, only not as successfully. The Daily Show is not even heretical - it is blasphemous. Which leads me to...
... the ideas in Adcult USA, whose author posits that television viewing is actually a form of mass worship. My conclusion is that in a few years, the remaining viewers, or devotees, will watch a programme that resembles todays news. But it will be even more stylised, and the stories will be reenactments, something like a cross between reality tv and medieval morality plays. (Note to self: write long piece connecting Punch and Judy, Bailey the Mother of the Nation, and the Eusa Man).
Anyway, I think television news is a lost cause, I don't watch it, and I don't care about it.
PS: Roving Keith + digicam = main premise of Max Headroom pilot.
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and next we see why babies need food
I SAW THAT PIECE! Cutting-edge research that concluded that mothers should eat healthily while they're pregnant. Then they had a shot of a new mother and a voiceover saying something like "but you don't have to tell Grace that, she's just given birth to a healthy baby girl!" NEWSFLASH! WOMAN EATS WELL, SAVES BABY!
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merc,
Thanks Stephen and Heather you have destroyed the thin veneer.
Head explodes.
Footnote, when I worked in advertising (long sigh of futility), we used the BNF (babies need food) principle (the only one we had really) to filter client product lies, I mean puffery, for example, Rinso Cleans!
Well one would hope, BNF. It also applies to newsreaders and politicians. Try it, it's a devastating drinking game.television news is a soap opera that serves to reinforce the viewers' understanding of the world
I knew but I didn't want to know, you know.
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television news is a soap opera that serves to reinforce the viewers' understanding of the world
Yeah, but, ahm, it also subtly and not-so-subtly shapes people's worldviews- no? So we all understand it's a very dangerous world out there that we need protection from, in so many ways. And we get the message- often just subtext- that some things are outside the realm of debate - unthinkable.
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It makes you a smoker.
That too I guess, unfortunate habit that it is.
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This is why when you go on holiday out of range of the news, and then come back, it's hard to "get into", just as if you had missed a couple of months of your favourite soap.
Not quite, when I come back from OS I'm always asking the taxi driver on the way home from the airport what the 'news' has been while I'm away. That's because when I go on holiday I don't go online (much) and the rest of the world do not cover NZ (Shrek excepted). Actually one of my bugbears is why TV1 & TV3 show so much Aussie news on our bulletins. A shooting in Wollomooloo has sod all to do with us. I've spent enough time in Oz to know they don't show one iota of NZ news on their channels - unless its derogatory to kiwis.
when I worked in advertising (long sigh of futility), we used the BNF (babies need food) principle (the only one we had really) to filter client product lies, I mean puffery, for example, Rinso Cleans! Well one would hope
Gotta love advertising! Much joy can be found reading the real estate section in your newspaper. Vendor Says Sell! Really? So he's not spending $5+k on marketing just to see, y'know, what the property is worth??
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