Fecking Depressing, Lazy Media

[Brainwrong]

What is it with the media's obsession with tragedy?

I don't think we should ignore issues but what possible good does it do me or anyone to read that:

An estranged father violently kills hid two daughters, one son, Wife & wife's brother?
A family of deranged bullies pour petrol into victims house killing both parents and putting the wee lassie in intensive care?
THat 17,000-odd kids were referred to a special committee due to abuse and bad parenting last year alone (oustripping delinquent behavour)?

And that's just what I can remember off-hand from the past few days.

Rape, rape, rape?
Abuse, abuse, abuse?
Murder, violence, hate?

It's disrespectful, it's unnecesarry and I'm fucking sick of it.

Aye, it sells papers, gets folk watching but is it healthy?

And, more to the point; does it actually make this country/world a better place?

[Northern Ireland Hibby]

Originally Posted by Brainwrong

What is it with the media's obsession with tragedy?

I don't think we should ignore issues but what possible good does it do me or anyone to read that:

An estranged father violently kills hid two daughters, one son, Wife & wife's brother?
A family of deranged bullies pour petrol into victims house killing both parents and putting the wee lassie in intensive care?
THat 17,000-odd kids were referred to a special committee due to abuse and bad parenting last year alone (oustripping delinquent behavour)?

And that's just what I can remember off-hand from the past few days.

Rape, rape, rape?
Abuse, abuse, abuse?
Murder, violence, hate?

It's disrespectful, it's unnecesarry and I'm fucking sick of it.

Aye, it sells papers, gets folk watching but is it healthy?

And, more to the point; does it actually make this country/world a better place?

I can't do it while I'm in my current job, but when I'm retired/ working somewhere else I'm going to start a blog showing up pisspoor standards, nonsense stories and the other general garbage (including the new trend for turning every torn-faced 'victim' or pissed-off consumer into normal news content) in the mainstream NI media.

I'm not sure you can blame hacks for reporting about tragedy where it occurs, but if they rest of their output is negative rubbish and cheap ranting then they need to ask themselves what their title/ programme is contributing to their community.

[superbam]

this has been pissing me off for a while now - to the point where if i see or hear a story of personal tragedy in the media i tend to shut it out or dismiss it, and I dont think thats too healthy for myself. I think its just that stories about specific individuals and their experiences, particularly when accompanied by photographs/footage, sells better than analysis of trends/macro-developments in society. Most folk dont want news really, they want a soap opera - look at the success of heat magazine and all that shect.

[Burbank Lilywhite]

There is a saying in the media, "If it bleeds, it leads".

Nothing sells like human misery. The days of reporting on the human condition and attempting to place it in some context have left us.

[Brainwrong]

Originally Posted by Northern Ireland Hibby

I can't do it while I'm in my current job, but when I'm retired/ working somewhere else I'm going to start a blog showing up pisspoor standards, nonsense stories and the other general garbage (including the new trend for turning every torn-faced 'victim' or pissed-off consumer into normal news content) in the mainstream NI media.

I'm not sure you can blame hacks for reporting about tragedy where it occurs, but if they rest of their output is negative rubbish and cheap ranting then they need to ask themselves what their title/ programme is contributing to their community.

I was thinking the same thing; take a paper, note all the negative pish that occurs in it for one week and either bring it to their atttaention and ask for an explanation as to why they deemed it necesarry to print such depressing, tragic pish or just analyse the reasons/motives for reporting certain stories.

I really am blaming hacks for reporting shit like this, mibby it's just part and parcel of the job now but if that was part of my job I'd walk away or try to do something about it.

What I'm trying to say is that we've all had tragedy in our lives so we don't need some lazy hack reminding us every fecking day of our lives instead of bothering to do some actual investigative reporting.

Why can't we just read about Hertz?

[Hampden_Hibby]

It's human nature. Maybe like horror films, it's the 'thank feck it's no me' syndrome.

Alice Cooper once asked, if there's a circus at one end of town and a plane crash at the other, where is the crowd?

[Hampden_Hibby]

Originally Posted by Brainwrong

Why can't we just read about Hertz?

I thought you didn't want to read about tragedy and hopeless despair?

[Brainwrong]

Originally Posted by Hampden_Hibby

I thought you didn't want to read about tragedy and hopeless despair?

That was a joke, just like Hertz really!

[The__Proclaimer]

Originally Posted by Burbank Lilywhite

There is a saying in the media, "If it bleeds, it leads".

Especially if the victim is a pretty young girl.

The millions that were hacked to death by machetes in Rawanda barely got a column inch in the press.