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Post by Don Quixote on Apr 25, 2010 8:57:08 GMT -5
Oh, I know that's an old thing. Old shows used to tell you who their sponsors were all the time, but when the traffic report's graphic also has a GM logo on it, it makes me wary. And the logo persists throughout the entire traffic report.
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Post by siamesesin on Apr 25, 2010 9:15:32 GMT -5
True. But I prefer it blatant to when it's buried in the story. For instance, how many event coverage pieces have you seen that are basically verbal HJs for the sponsors? Those are the things that as a former media studies major really get under my skin.
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Post by Don Quixote on Apr 26, 2010 11:56:50 GMT -5
I was wondering if was starting to get this bad across the pond as well. Sorry to hear that. Something else I noticed a few days ago is the sheer amount of advertising that goes on during a news broadcast. The traffic report is sponsored by GM. Weather is often times brought to you via some pharmaceutical company. An alarmingly large number of the segments are now via inane sponsorship. I mean, you see the sponsor's commercials at least twice during the five minute commercial break. sooner or later, The top of the night story is going to be sponsored by Cheetos or the NRA, depending on whether or not there was a shooting. I think we should go back to basics with the news, instead of this 24-hour need of attention, I can't see 24-hour news as a good idea at all. It means that there will be less time to verify sources and bring viable news to the table instead of this drivel we suffer. That's kind of the reason I don't watch cable news. I understand that news is important, and you should have access to news when you need it, but if you buy a newspaper, you have that. Hell, if you have an internet connection, you have that. News does not need to be on 24 hours a day, because on slow news days, you get Elmo and large knockers. And since the big guys are presenting that as news, the smaller, more local news networks decide that it's an acceptable way to do things, and we get more of the same locally. The sheer amount of stupid, inane crap in the news is overwhelming. In an hour news broadcast, perhaps ten minutes could be devoted to actual news, thanks to the ratings-fueled mentality of television news anchors. Abolish the 24-hour news network. It gives rise to crazies and poor journalism. Don't even get me started on the political aspect of it all. |
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Post by inlovewithcrow on Apr 26, 2010 12:52:52 GMT -5
It too shocks me what passes for "journalism"--a notion I have a dinosaur's idea of, apparently. There are riffs about this in at least rifftrax. Some movie, showing some terrible crisis on TV news (perhaps it was Independence Day and the invasion of aliens), has one of the riffers interrupting"Paris Hilton just got a parking ticket." It's funny cuz it's true.
Complementary copy is the term for pap news releases that are part of a bargain made including buying advertising time. We spend X dollars with your media outlet, you print/say a "story" that tells the idiotconsumers they need our product. The case of this I've laughed at most in my life is that *NEWS FLASH* "running shoes must be replaced every 500 miles." Man, whoever wrote that at Nike and passed it out was, I hope, given a million dollar bonus. And they all just read it (and continue to) like it's some Big Truth. Cuz like, humans evolved with brand new Nikes on our feet. Oh no, wait, we ran barefoot for a million years before Phil Knight came along. Run in your shoes until they shred off your feet--you'll be fine, really.
I used to give my students a pop quiz on Iran. What language is spoken there? What does "ayatollah" mean? The capital? Main export? etc. They knew nothing (actually 1/200 kids would know the capital city and one out of all those I quizzed knew the language). And I'd say "and when we go to war with these people, as we will one day, and you're buying into whatever propaganda is being read to you on the 'news,' remember, you were a blank slate. If you don't protect yourself by knowing the real stuff first, you'll be an easy mark for the brainwashing when it comes."
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Post by crowschmo on May 5, 2010 19:23:17 GMT -5
Another thing I hate is the local "news" channels doing news every half hour. They run it at 5:00, 5:30, 6:00, 6:30. All they do is switch wherever they're broadcasting it from, and switch newsteams, and they give the SAME NEWS! Are you telling me NOTHING else is going on in the world since you JUST told us this a half hour ago? They run the same stories, and give the weather and give the same sports results that they already did.
And they report very little of what's going on in the world. They devote like 15 minutes of some sensationalized fluff and do an "around the globe in 60 seconds" type bull crap. How is anyone going to get anything out of THAT? Or they'll say, log on to our website to find out more details. Um, here's a thought: Just GIVE us the damn DETAILS! The news is on for an hour and a half! Can't they all just get together and decide who's going to report what? (The local ones, I mean, not when they switch to national news).
It's really just a bunch of nothing. They're not really telling us much of anything. (That was redundant).
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Post by Chuck on May 6, 2010 19:42:26 GMT -5
We watch the BBC and PBS for news, read all the papers on line we can, and Jose reads the Spanish and European newspapers.
American news? Worthless tripe.
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