The Simple A..B..C of the media

Like many/most people I have time shifted most of my media encounters. I listen to BBC radio at night, and catch up with ABC and SBS programs through iView and SBS On Demand. I can see all sorts of other thing on You Tube. I seldom say any more..."I have to be home by 8.30 to watch "Giggle and Hootch""   We almost always watch 'And live from New York....it's Saturday Night Live' the cutting edge , must watch satire, comedy, political/social commentary that is available online within an hour of it's being broadcast in NY at 11.35 p.m. each Saturday Night .

I am particularly struck by the BBC, and the depth of its quality radio...which goes back now over 40 years. They have simply kept everything...and continue so to do. [Today it is easier because of digital technology ]

I am struck by how good that is.

Of course the BBC has largely been able to be funded by the iniquitous "licence fee"... once present in this country, and there is no way it will ever be able to be reintroduced ( politically)  in Australia.

So there is now little or no radio drama, almost all comedy has disappeared or been destroyed; both commercial and ABC;...what a pity Mavis Bramson and the Naked Vicar Show have disappeared. I even imagine that there are those who would long to hear replays of Blue Hills!

So now we are facing, yet again, cuts to ABC funding. What concerns me about this is the loss of culture.  

Economic decisions seem little concerned with the preservation of culture..

They do seem concerned with limiting political criticism...some Liberals are convinced that the ABC is out to get them.  It is surely part of their Charter to critique the sitting government...and think Mr Bernardi at al are being just a little bit precious

Serious resistance

Have seriously resisted the temptation (sed libera nos a malo) to say the day of the printed page is over but I am increasingly coming to that opinion.
The latest brick to fall is the newspaper. While some of us have been agonising about whether or not we should subscribe to online newspapers, I noticed the other day when in my local library that they were suggesting that members should access papers on the web through the library system. ( You can do this here)
I lay in bed this morning and read the Australian and the Advertiser (actually discovered I had written a letter to the paper!! ) on my tablet... substantially the same as here.
This gets more and more exciting. When I went to the desktop to see how this worked this afternoon I discovered I was on a page (accessed through a South Australian Library!!!) called Journaux du Monde Entier.
Seems to me this means "Every Journal/Newspaper in the world!!!"
Now one of my children (K) and I usually only communicate in French these days (!!!) but I was deeply shocked to find that Mitcham Council was inviting me so to do as well!!!
Through this page I can access  all or in part The Australian, the Advertiser, the Trader, The Age,  Australian Literary Review, Daily Mail, Vancouver Sun, New York Post....and so it goes on
And you wonder why I think the last bastion has fallen! 
As a news lover I feel pretty excited by this! 
I can manage it. And I can do it in bed!!!

They just don't get it.

I am one (apparently of the few) who thought that the attempt to resurrect "Hey Hey It's Saturday" was a big mistake. It just seemed to me as I looked at it that it was like going back a decade (or more).

I was not surprised in the five minutes I watched of it to see the now-infamous Jackson Jibe.
Half a dozen white guys all 'blacked up' like minstrels taking off the Jackson famil. It reminded us that what might be Ok for six medical students to do in 1989 was not Ok in 2009.

Although the news.com.au machine has been at odds to malign H. Connick Jr (for having blacked up, too, a decade ago) the reality is that we have (PTL) moved on. Connick has moved on. The world has moved on.

This is what is wrong with trying to resurrect HHYIS...we have all moved on!

Media Blackout

A recent email sent to me (no reason to disbelieve it) told of an event in Adelaide on Sunday 25th November, the day after the Federal election.

Approximately 75 people attended an Aboriginal smoking ceremony in Hindmarsh Square to observe John Howard’s “political funeral”.

John Howard’s coffin was bathed in smoke as Aboriginal Kaurna elder Uncle Lewis O’Brien performed a funeral rite in the Kaurna language.
Niwili White Forrest held the bowl of smoking leaves as they circled the coffin together.

Members of the audience placed “detention centre” barbed wire wreaths, WMDs, and flowers for those who have suffered under his regime, on the coffin.
MC Tauto Sansbury addressed the crowd, explaining how John Howard’s evil spirit was being cleansed from the country after 11 bad years.

BUT NOTE THIS
Channel 7, 9, and 10 cameras filmed the ceremony, but did not carry it in their TV news that night – Costello’s “resignation” took pride of place…

Klynton Wanganeen from the local community addressed the crowd.

Professor Peter Buckskin gave a powerful speech that outlined Howard’s impact on Aboriginal communities.

Pilawuk White, from the Ngangiwumerri people of the NT, said, “We now consider the country to be finally rid of John Howard’s evil spirit, and are celebrating the birth of a new era.”


She took the audience through a water cleansing ceremony from her country in which water is placed on the forehead and then on the navel

The mainstream media ignored this important event that symbolises the burying of the Howard era and the subsequent moving on.

No one belonging to a sectional group like a church or minor political interest group will be surprised about the neglect of the media. We can all lament that such a symbolic event was not given the media exposure it should have been. Hopefully, though, we can move on.
Surely the much awaited apology must not be far off.

Off the mark

After having been told yesterday that the local Hills and Valley Messenger had done an expose on a new Brethren compound in our area, and it went on for page after page; I suppoose I should have been more careful when a reporter rang up.

Her guise was to question about the census "Why did I think that Anglican figures had gone down?" and "Yes, the census said that Buddhist and Hindu figures had gone up"

Well these things are more complex than they seem. I suggested.

Buddhists and Hindus are coming off a low base.

We (Anglicans) are trying but we are getting older and the census doesn't tell us anything that we don't already know!

I even said "I'm a bit cautious about sayiung too much because it's not straight forward"
"That's OK," she proffered, "I'm a Catholic"
Didn't actually make me feel any better.
Having been burnt by the media a couple of years ago (it was TV admittedly) I hung the phone up thinking that I had probably said too much and should have said nothing.
We shall wait and see what comes of it.

Petulant

It would be petulant to question why the air crash in Yogoyakarta yesterday has dominated the airwaves.
While it is serious, it is also a modest disaster in the scheme of things.
It gets excessive media attention because there were Australians on board, but mainly because there was video of the awful events.
Not so events with recent around the world...34 killed in a train crash in Harare, 8 killed in a helicopter crash in Austria.
I was also personbally bowled over by the PM's obvious intention to act with great haste to "bring them home". Not so others who don't take his fancy like David Hicks, who has become his politcial football