Posts by Stephen Judd
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Hard News: Grokking things by being places, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
It may be that they just didn't get their priories right?
Their former habits may have fallen into abeyance.
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Hey slarty, welcome back! It's nice to see you.
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Key's popularity has partly been based on his appearance of being above politics, an affable, likeable chap, not a politician really. Nothing could be more fatal to that image than a tape of him talking hard politics to a politician. That's why it doesn't matter what the details of the tape are. What matters is that it will show he's a politician like all the rest.
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Speaker: The Public Broadcasting Imperative, in reply to Tom Semmens,
the White Sea canal wasn't built only by the guilty.
Even taken as black humour, that's repellent, Tom. Rather worse that the original crack, I think.
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Speaker: The Public Broadcasting Imperative, in reply to David Herkt,
I personally cannot believe how quite consistently it is demonstrated that our networks are losing numbers of viewers. There is all the crap about the competition from other platforms, but free-to-air is one of the great human dreams - with access to everyone, without payment... I mean, honestly, how can you screw that one up?
I don't think it's crap. There are genuinely more things to do with your entertainment time now, and I think it's reasonable to expect that more and more network TV watching time is being replaced by video game time, Facebook time, Sky time, whatever.
One thing I have long thought though is that concentrating on things known to have the widest appeal is a bad strategy, in that you lose all the people who had minority tastes that are no longer catered for. My suspicion is that the top 10 rating things might in aggregate still be a minority or only a small minority of the potential public. You can see something similar in the fate of book chains that focus on bestsellers only.
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Hard News: Presentation and Reality, in reply to Peter Calder,
Ditto celebrity-obsession; presidential-style politics; soundbite coverage: if you think it’s a Herald problem you ain’t been watching TV or reading the quality press in the UK for about 10 years.
Yes, I think this is an important point. In my day job, I see what's popular with the online news audience. Only a small number of people read deep coverage of policy, while very large numbers click through to stories about personalities, sport, attractive young women, animals, sex and violence. From a cold-hearted capitalist point of view, directing journalists anywhere else is a misallocation of resources. I am now coming to think that the remaining serious coverage we see is actually far more of a public service than we realise.
"Young women fawn over Key" may be favourable to Key, but it is also an easy story to write, it doesn't challenge people's preconceptions, and it has potential for pictures of attractive young women. It's no brainer to make that a prominent story on the website. I do believe that if Labour had a dashing leader who attracted young women at the races, you would see an equivalent story.
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Hard News: We interrupt this broadcast ..., in reply to James Butler,
the red background, faux-stencil typeface and ALL CAPS combine to make them look a little... how do I put this... hammer-and-sickle
I think there's no doubt the message behind the message is that Labour is getting back to its roots. Not far enough, I would say, but it's good that Labour is being out and proud about being redistributionist, interventionist, maybe even a teeny bit socialist.
And the old-school propaganda look is so hip right now.
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No, mine was a legit reprint published years after. Still a good read then. And a lot easier to understand than the Linux kernel.
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OnPoint: PREFU 2011: "What credit downgrade?", in reply to David Cormack,
they aren’t trying to hurt you.
If they're trying to do something that hurts me, and are immune to feedback, why not be enraged? ANGER IS AN ENERGY.
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OnPoint: PREFU 2011: "What credit downgrade?", in reply to David Cormack,
they must genuinely believe what they are doing is right for the country.
I'm prepared to accept that, for the most part. But I think they have very different ideas about what and who "the country" actually is compared to me. Eg, I think if you asked a National cabinet minister to write 10 imaginary biogs of typical citizens, their list would be whiter, less urban, more male, and better-heeled than mine.