BBC News As Amateur Dramatics
Posted on August 31, 2007
Filed Under Non Sequitur, News | Leave a Comment
In his James MacTaggart memorial lecture Jeremy Paxman said:
“In the very crowded world in which television lives, it won’t do to whisper, natter, cogitate or muse. You have to shout. The need is for constant sensation. The consequence is that reporting now prizes emotion over much else.
In this press of events there often isn’t the time to get out and find things out: you rely upon second-hand information - quotes from powerful vested interests, assessments from organisations which do the work we don’t have time for, even, god help us, press releases from public relations agencies. The consequence is that what follows isn’t analysis. It’s simply comment, because analysis takes time, and comment is free.”
Yes, up to a point, Lord Copper.
The idea that news may be diluted, tainted or in many other ways adulterated between the event itself and the transmission of the reported interpretation of that event is actually nothing new.
Unless you are actually in the mind of the protagonist and took part in the event itself, you are of necessity relying upon second-hand interpretations and opinions which may or may not be accurate. News always has been like this.
However, the point to be made here is regarding the delivery of the news and whether this has an impact on the way in which it is perceived and received. To a degree, whether the messenger seems trustworthy or perhaps should be shot.
Huw Edwards reads both the six o’clock and later evening news bulletins. It used to be that newsreaders would deliver their broadcasts with stony faces and clear enunciation. That was it. The job description was reading out loud in public, with an authoritative, but neutral delivery.
It is not that Huw Edwards does not uphold this tradition to a great degree and the quibble may be trifling and somewhat churlish. The problem is that everything seems to be said in the way you would imagine a gossipy social worker passing on the slightly uninteresting titbit that the sandwich delivery person has had a minor accident, but is not hurt.
It seems that there is an attempt here to protect us from anything in the news which might be unpleasant. If it is delivered in a slightly mumbled, but concerned way, we know that even when there has been a plane crash, the signal is that we are both all right, so everything is safe.
It is the “Put your feet up and have a cup of tea” style of news. “Oh, I do ache today, but musn’t grumble, eh?” All that Huw Edwards would need to do to be a perfect imitation of Mrs Pike from Dad’s Army would be to wear a headscarf.
He is, however, the figure of immovable restraint and gravitas when compared with George Alaghia. This is a man who has deprived the world of acting, not so much of a Hamlet as a real ham and instead given us the perfect example of hamfisted news delivery.
Every item has to fit within his balletically executed routine of bizarre and distracting hand gestures, which are probably intended to help the deaf imagine what the general theme of the news might be. The up and down upturned palm to show that is is a bit sad and we need to show sympathy. The sweeping downturned palm indicating that this is serious nonsense and we should be having no truck with it. The repeated chopping motion so we know that we need to pay attention to a lot of important facts.
Then, as the news bulletin draws to a close, we get the grinning lunatic impression to tell us that we are being treated to some good news to make our hearts leap and tears start in our eyes.
The only thing lacking in all this - and it hardly matters, as these mime and pantomime signals tell us all we need to know - is for George Alaghia to deliver the whole news dressed as a clown and pedalling around the studio on a unicycle honking a horn.
It would be nice if we could trust the news and not rely upon often ill-informed opinion and sometimes grotesquely fabricated flights of wildly inaccurate fancy as our sources.
However, returning the televised delivery of the news to something resembling a clear and unimpassioned statement of facts, rather than an hysterical audition for a local amateur dramatic society can only help this process.
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Students Break Bank
Posted on August 30, 2007
Filed Under Business, News | Leave a Comment
Which sector of society is hated as much as politicians? The banking community, exactly.
It is therefore heartening to learn that these bloodsuckers have been given a thorough drubbing by students who seem to have managed to act in unison for something other than getting drunk and making fools of themselves.
The mighty HSBC had decided that it would peremptorily charge new graduates for overdrafts, rather than allow the normal grace period until the pooor little creatures were earning grown-up salaries.
It did not go down well and the students used something called a social networking site by the name of FaceParty or something similar (don’t ask me) to organise a concerted rebellion.
The Independent had reported this:
HSBC insists it was a commercial decision in response to bad debts, misuse of the accounts and graduates who had no intention of building a long-term relationship with the bank.
But student protesters accused HSBCof outrageous behaviour, hitting them when they were most vulnerable, after they graduated with record amounts of debts and no guarantee of immediate work.
One entry on the website read: “I am so disgusted with HSBC right now – it actually makes my blood boil. Never before have I lost so much faith in an organisation.” Another said: “I think it is absolutely ridiculous. I can’t wait to see what HSBC says when everyone waves goodbye and they lose out.”
The protest is being organised by the National Union of Students, which is also staging a more traditional protest outside the bank’s London headquarters next Tuesday
“It is outrageous that HSBC have imposed such major changes to these graduate accounts after very little notice and consultation with their student customers,” said Wes Streeting, NUS Vice President (Education).
He continued: “The reaction to this campaign has been phenomenal. More and more people are signing up every day. It really does show the strength of injustice felt about this. HSBC are mistaken if they think students will take this lying down.
“The student and graduate banking market is lucrative and competitive. Every year, the major banks are jockeying for position at freshers’ fairs with a dazzling array of gimmicks and accounts on offer. Students are spoilt for choice.
“We are encouraging current and new students to look carefully at their banking options. The only way to get HSBC to change their mind is to hit them where it hurts, in their wallet.”
However, Times Online then had this:
HSBC have been forced into an embarrassing climbdown over overdraft charges for graduates after a campaign orchastrated on a social networking website.
The bank announced today that it is to reverse its decision to charge graduates interest on their overdrafts, following pressure from its customers. Around 250,000 students were forced to pay interest on their overdraft when HSBC announced in June that it would no longer offer interest-free overdrafts of up to £1,500. All high street banks usually give graduates at least a year’s grace to clear their student overdrafts, but HSBC said it would charge 10 per cent interest from the beginning of August.
But disgruntled graduates protested on the social networking website Facebook, joining a group set up by Wes Streeting, the NUS Vice-President, called “Stop the great HSBC graduate rip-off”. The NUS believes the use of Facebook was crucial in forcing HSBC to reverse its decision. Mr Streeting,said: “Running the campaign through facebook has been tremendously successful. I think it’s tremendous that such a huge amount of pressure has resulted in a change of policy for HSBC.”
When it announced that it was to freeze interest charges for graduates, HSBC said that it was “not too big to listen to the needs of [its] customers.”
However, before you go out and celebrate like a student by vomiting a bellyful of alcohol and kebab into the gutter, then rushing to kiss your local bank manager, remember this. The banks will not allow this source of revenue, this notionally already ‘banked’ profit to slip through their fingers.
If necessary, they will be sending branch under-managers out to mug disabled people in the streets, rather than countenance a theoretical loss. They will, otherwise, simply put charges up for everyone else.
So, it seems that these recent graduates are actually still sponging from the rest of us and continuing as parasites on the backs of taxpayers. Bloody students!
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What The Elgg Is All This?
Posted on July 22, 2007
Filed Under Web Publishing | Leave a Comment
I have looked at Elgg a few times over the last, perhaps, year or so and had a go at installing it at one time, which did not meet with a great deal of success. I notice that even over at OpenSourceCMS.com it has been binned with a number of other CMS which did not install nicely and were given up on.
I noticed through a link the other day that .Net magazine were doing an article on social software (but not what it was) and today I went to the supermarket for other reasons and looked to see which one(s) they were going to look at. When I saw it was Elgg, I put the magazine back on the shelf and wished it had been something else.
However, the first thing I did when I came back was to download the files and see what I could do.
I have a very much split brain as far as social software goes and the whole web 2.0 ethos/dream/charade/moneymaking-machine and hate it when you see the headline “Make your very own MySpace!” The problem I see is that people see MySpace and the others as a revenue source and not that for most people, getting to the stage where the users are one more than yourself and a few cajoled and indifferent friends is an impossible task which you will never be able to fund if it does get to the stage where users actually arrive in droves.
The other two critical points in this regard:-
1. Why would you think it is a good idea to replicate MySpace when it has already been done and anyone with any sense would be looking at what is next?
2. Do you really want to have to control and police hordes of people using your site? It is not like having a few friends round for lunch. It is more like trying to control events when the biggest lunatic asylum, pub, club, football crowd, prison and school in the world are all next door to each other and have all let out their occupants at the same time. Not only that, they all want you to pay for their fun for the rest of their lives. Oh joy!
Anyway, I ended up setting up Elgg. It was easy when I spotted my stupid mistake, which involved not bothering to scroll down the configuration screen.
See it before I delete it. Here today, maybe gone tomorrow. Try it and I might keep it if you are nice.
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