Woke up and my beloved boy had given me a Guylian Easter Egg with praline chocolate bars. Days like this are why I love him as much as I do!!! Except he was very awake first thing in the morning, and forgotten that daylight saving had kicked in. Now, I'm sorry baby boy, but 7am is not a reasonable time to be up on a Sunday if I don't have to be. Ever.
So, a quiet day today. Not much happening in the world, what with it being Easter and all. Interesting piece on Mediawatch this morning (SG, you might like this) - more 50% of stories in Australian newspapers are driven by PR (wrap up of the findings here). Not that this is much of a surprise, but it does raise the question of how (or even if) this can be remedied. Probably a little depressing if one were looking at getting into journalism...
Be very interesting to see how this study compares to NZ journalism or US journalism.
One would have to say that 50% of most media is PR driven isn't it, especially outlets like the NZ Herald for instance (The Dominion even more so)?
ReplyDeleteRegardless any news story which doesn't find it's beginnings in a press release drips with self interest, political leanings and the best interests of the owners of the outlet in question. Having grown up a journalist brat I am prone to being cynical when it comes to mass media.
As to there being a remedy for this situation. I fear not. The blogsphere goes some way towards it but 90% of bloggers just regurgitate what the mass media feeds them and mixes in their opinion. This certainly doesn't help with objective representation of an event. It really just muddies the water further. What I have found the best remedy to be is this: Don't trust one outlet for your inbound info streams, be sure to cross cultural and political divides in your search for the truth. That's my approach anyway.
Your egg sounds delish though. None for me this year :-( One of the downsides of living in an Islamic country I guess :P
Always consult multiple sources for your news to get the whole story, blue eyes. :)
ReplyDelete