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February 07
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News in brief
Where our traditional news services fail us, new media allows us easy access to the information highway.
By Chris Jacobs
We live in a world that is more interconnected than ever. Technology is giving us the unprecedented ability to find out almost instantly about what is going on both in terms of large events and on an individual level anywhere in the world. We can find out what is happening in the most remote or dangerous places and we’re able to form truly informed opinions on the major issues of our day.
That being said, if you watch our average nightly news broadcast you could be forgiven for thinking that very little exists beyond our northern shoreline and nothing significant goes on beyond our local state border. Or that we don’t care.
To a certain extent, our television stations are taking advantage of the new technology such as web news services, blogs, YouTube, etcetera- but seemingly, only when it applies to the most local of issues.
Watching a recent nightly news broadcast on one of our three major networks, the first 15 minutes of coverage included bushfires, crowd violence at the tennis, traffic light outages, power shortages as well as a couple of basic human interest pieces.
On this same day, two of Saddam Hussein’s top advisors were executed, thousands were killed in Sudan, the EU was facing a major crisis, China was launching a major environmental initiative, Australia was flagging the possibility of selling Uranium to India…The list goes on and on.
As unsavoury as the mini scuffle at the tennis was, it doesn’t compare to genocide in Africa. And the crowd brawl at the tennis brings up another point: how quickly we (and our media) are quick to criticise and condemn events that involve people or things that are not “Australian”.
At one of the recent one-day international cricket games involving Australia and England, 190 people were arrested and ejected from the game. Yet, that did not generate anywhere near the television, news or talk back radio coverage that the comparatively minor incident at the Australian Open did, or indeed the one in which three people were arrested at the unprecedented sell-out domestic soccer match between Melbourne and Sydney in December. It seems that when things involve a more local game like cricket we are more eager to turn a blind eye.
However it is our apathy, despite the numerous advantages that we have over our forebears, even those ones as recent as 10 years ago, that is most concerning.
While if you browse the videos of YouTube, you can view first-hand accounts of not just horrors but some of the major achievements and milestones all over the world, you are extremely unlikely to see any of this on any of our commercial networks. Not unless they have some connection to Australia, you have a spare couple of minutes to fill in, or it’s such a huge story that it demands airtime or newspaper space.
The SBS World News- the one news service we have that devotes itself to the most significant stories regardless of country of origin, doesn’t rate well. It would seem we are more concerned about what people are doing in change rooms on the current affair shows, or the latest romance and break up on Neighbours.
At least now with the internet we have many media sources to choose from and can do so via YouTube or web news services and blogs. As a result, people who truly do care about real issues both home and abroad are able to access this information easily and not be just be a slave to the inane and largely insignificant coverage of our commercial networks.
Hopefully it may not be long before YouTube out rates Channel Nine news and Google News has a greater readership than the Herald Sun.
Chris Jacob is a director of Jive eXchange www.jiveexchange.com/metronews
Chris Jacobs
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