The News
A more serious entry.
The local paper here published a story today about the recent tragic siege on School Number 1 in Beslan, North Ossetia. More of that later.
I was watching BBC World here as the stalemate drew to a close and the gunfire started. For half an hour, there was a single camera shot of a green field, 500 metres from the school. The presenter was speaking to a "terrorism expert". Their conversation, for half an hour, as I watched a shot of a green field that didn't change once, consisted of them repeating, over and over again, each time with slightly different wording:
"We don't know what's happening. We can hear shots being fired. Earlier, we heard two loud explosions from the school."
At one point the "expert" even said:
"We can confirm that we don't know what's happening..."
Surely all that confirms is your ignorance.
I eventually became so sickened that I turned the telly off. I felt like they were salivating at the thought that, eventually, they'd know what had happened, and would be able to tell us all the gruesome details. This is the massive problem with 24 hour news stations. I know that this isn't an original point, but when a story breaks, it isn't news. It's vouyeurism. But what choice do they have? Going to "other news" would seem equally callous, wouldn't it?
Well, here's something they could have done. They could have informed the "regular viewer" -probably usually too worried about the situation in their own country and their own lives to have anything more than fleeting knowledge about international affairs - about the background to the Chechen situation. They could have tried to tell the regular viewer why this was happening. Explored the issues. Helped people to understand. Instead, they waited and waited and waited, saying nothing, over and over again, unable to leave the scene because they were probably afraid that the "regular viewer" would turn over to another news channel in case they missed some gory details.
It's all about ratings, isn't it?
Back to today's article in the local paper. It informed me that, apparently, "China" (whatever that means) has ordered TV networks to stop running "unauthorised" text message contests for viewers. This is because one state-run channel held a lottery for viewers to "guess the death toll" as the Beslan tragedy unfolded. Viewers were given four choices, from 302 to 402. The executives from the TV channel have since been "removed" (whatever that means).
In the three weeks since the tragedy, I've watched BBC World every day since for at least half an hour - sometimes I have it on all the time as I work. I thought it might help me stay in touch with the news from here. Tellingly, I've only seen two news items on School Number 1.
Sadly, my only other choice is CNN World.
For slightly dated info on the Chechen conflict, visit this link. For an up to date q and a click here. For news about what's happened since, click here. Ironically, it's all from the brilliant, informative BBC website.
The local paper here published a story today about the recent tragic siege on School Number 1 in Beslan, North Ossetia. More of that later.
I was watching BBC World here as the stalemate drew to a close and the gunfire started. For half an hour, there was a single camera shot of a green field, 500 metres from the school. The presenter was speaking to a "terrorism expert". Their conversation, for half an hour, as I watched a shot of a green field that didn't change once, consisted of them repeating, over and over again, each time with slightly different wording:
"We don't know what's happening. We can hear shots being fired. Earlier, we heard two loud explosions from the school."
At one point the "expert" even said:
"We can confirm that we don't know what's happening..."
Surely all that confirms is your ignorance.
I eventually became so sickened that I turned the telly off. I felt like they were salivating at the thought that, eventually, they'd know what had happened, and would be able to tell us all the gruesome details. This is the massive problem with 24 hour news stations. I know that this isn't an original point, but when a story breaks, it isn't news. It's vouyeurism. But what choice do they have? Going to "other news" would seem equally callous, wouldn't it?
Well, here's something they could have done. They could have informed the "regular viewer" -probably usually too worried about the situation in their own country and their own lives to have anything more than fleeting knowledge about international affairs - about the background to the Chechen situation. They could have tried to tell the regular viewer why this was happening. Explored the issues. Helped people to understand. Instead, they waited and waited and waited, saying nothing, over and over again, unable to leave the scene because they were probably afraid that the "regular viewer" would turn over to another news channel in case they missed some gory details.
It's all about ratings, isn't it?
Back to today's article in the local paper. It informed me that, apparently, "China" (whatever that means) has ordered TV networks to stop running "unauthorised" text message contests for viewers. This is because one state-run channel held a lottery for viewers to "guess the death toll" as the Beslan tragedy unfolded. Viewers were given four choices, from 302 to 402. The executives from the TV channel have since been "removed" (whatever that means).
In the three weeks since the tragedy, I've watched BBC World every day since for at least half an hour - sometimes I have it on all the time as I work. I thought it might help me stay in touch with the news from here. Tellingly, I've only seen two news items on School Number 1.
Sadly, my only other choice is CNN World.
For slightly dated info on the Chechen conflict, visit this link. For an up to date q and a click here. For news about what's happened since, click here. Ironically, it's all from the brilliant, informative BBC website.
posted by Me @ 8:23 pm
1 Comments:
At 7:52 pm,
Me said…
Yes thanks
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