Is news NEWS anymore??

[that_guy]

I was wandering when I was watching the news this week that the news felt a bit off(?) if you know what I mean... Some news are worth mentioning but some others are just a great waste of time!!! The WOT news listed below:

1.Mangoes??
http://au.news.yahoo.com/queensland/a/-/newshome/6671930/tropical-fruit-falling-across-brisbane/

2.Being straight with your boss?? (yeah right!)
http://au.news.yahoo.com/queensland/a/-/world/6676496/being-straight-with-your-boss-cuts-stress-study/

3. WTH??
http://au.news.yahoo.com/queensland/a/-/odd/6675885/maths-genius-discovers-why-singles-cant-find-love/

4.HORRAH!!
http://au.news.yahoo.com/queensland/a/-/world/6676276/china-announces-first-gay-marriage/

5. No comment...
http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/national/-/watch/17595473

I personally don't consider these as news!! Comments and Criticism Welcomed.

Regards,
Tony

[supernova1965]

Just watch A Current Affair over 90% was about what TV you should buy or what Cosmetics or whatever you should BUY BUY BUY:screwy:

[OneOfOne]

One thing I find incredibly annoying is when I am watching the "news" part of the news and the first two or three articles are "sport" (some footy club has signed up some monkey from another club...more in the sport section of the bulletin, or some old codger has announced his retirement as coach...more about this in the sport section of the news).

In some cases, most of the news section is taken up with sport! We normally have our dinner when the sport is on, or I mute the sound :)

The "after news" affairs programs, I think, are largely touchy feely articles to make you feel good or some poor person is the victim of a local council or some rich land developer, designed to make you angry about the inequalities of our society. Generally, not a lot of "news" as such.

But overall, I agree...some times they must be really desperate for some filler for the half hour!

[matt]

You need to understand the difference between 'news' and 'current affairs' as styles of reportage.

I wouldn't watch ACA or Today Tonight if you're after news. Come to think of it, I wouldn't watch either of them for genuine current affairs, either!

Like anything on TV...much of the content is heavily researched to make sure it will appeal to the general 'masses'.

So, as unpalatable as it may seem, it's generally a case of giving your target audience what it wants. If you personally don't like it, perhaps you're outside of the demographic they're attempting to appeal to?

Blame the majority that regularly watch in large numbers...and in so doing....affirm to the station bigwigs that stories about washing powder, the latest wonderbra and how to lose weight just by drinking a certain type of tea...are what the public wants.:)

There's always the ABC. After all, it's your tax dollars paying for the service. You might as well be watching it.

[mithrandir]

There's this other network called the ABC. Obviously some people haven't heard of it. :P

They have news reports too, from real reporters, at a more predictable time, with no adverts.

You can choose to watch the light entertainment the commercials call news. If I'm doing that I'll probably pick TEN, because I can turn off after the first half hour and miss 90% of the "sport". And I'm definitely not in their demographic.

[supernova1965]

ACA used to be serious but they have gone soft and just put on froth and bubble

[goober]

I get a warm fuzzy every morning reading the latest Myki article in the Melbourne Age. The guy really doesn't like it!

That mango story made me hungry.... lunch!

[Waxing_Gibbous]

[QUOTE=OneOfOne;546234]One thing I find incredibly annoying is when I am watching the "news" part of the news and the first two or three articles are "sport" (some footy club has signed up some monkey from another club...more in the sport section of the bulletin, or some old codger has announced his retirement as coach...more about this in the sport section of the news).

QUOTE]

Hear, bloody hear!!!!! Outta be a law! 'Nuff said on THAT!

My whinge:
The cat-up-tree bilge that passes as news here is just woeful. When its not some coked up footballer bashing eight bells out of his skank girlfriend, it's some politico opens a train station, grumpy d*** complains about electricity. Pensioners car stolen.... hoon drivers....'Truckies".... "Bikies"....Immigrants.....Climate Change,....Immigrant hoon bikies causing climate change....and my all time fave for the ninth year running: So-and-so's POSSIBLE connection to Islamic "extremists".
You could watch last June's news and not notice the difference.:shrug:

More woeful is the ABC who should know better. Not only do they repeat the same drivel (but in more stentorious tones) but with all their broadcast stations you only get the one 'news'
Every single, sodding, ABC Radio station has EXACTLY the same news at the same time. WTH????
Double worser, is "The World Today" where the fist 50 minutes of the hour are taken with....Australian news! The same stuff that was on 30 seconds ago, but with more people talking about it.
Ditto SBS evening news. Like something from the Humanties faculty at a second rate Uni.
I miss the Beeb.:(

[Jules76]

I love the "news" stories ACA do every now and then, which is blatant advertising. The other day, I watched to my amusement (which is all do watching ACA), this "story" about how Plasma/LCD TV's are cheap and NOW is the best time to buy. Isn't it always?

It was hard hitting quality journalism, as they grilled salesperson after salesperson from different stores on the best deal they had and why they should buy now. I'm suprised they didn't have a 1800 number ready to go with operators standing by to take your order. :lol:

[matt]

Again....

ACA is about 'current affairs'....not 'news'. Don't watch the program if you're after news content.

[Louwai]

I'm with you trevor.

There are 4 things I have ABSOLUTLY no time for.

Cricket
Tennis
Golf
& flamin football..........

No interest in the slightest........


Now a motorcycle or a telescope............ That's a different story..:thumbsup:

[Matt Wastell]

ABC and SBS for me.

I was at a mates house tonight and a story on Ch 10 'news' was school shoe fitting for the start of the school year!

What, no real news today?

[Jules76]

Woah calm down I was being sarcastic.

And I don't watch the show, I laugh at it. :lol:

[matt]

Appreciate that.

But again...just pointing out the difference.

BTW - I'm calm...and I don't watch it either.:)

[Killakoala]

I've developed a wonderful ability to 'tune-out' when stupid, inane and non-newsworthy articles come on TV. That said, I generally only watch the Ten morning news to catch up on what's happened overnight.

I get most of my news from ABC online, that way I can selectively choose what articles I want to view. Then again, their news titles are sometimes quite cryptic so a title called, 'Warriors mauled by Tigers in jungle horror' is probably only about rugby. :)

[sjastro]

It's not only the case of what is news worthy, but how the news is prioritized.

For example the lead story on one of Melbourne's commercial stations last night was not the Haiti earthquake disaster, but the Victorian assistant police commissioner caught exceeding the speed limit by 10 km/r last October.

It's a sad reflection on us, if the news is prioritized based on the perception on what the viewing public deems as being more important.

Steven

[Barrykgerdes]

Just remember only a small portion of the news reading population have an intellegence high enough to understand what the news is. These are also the people who mentally tune out the advertisements (which keep free to air TV going).

The bulk of the viewers like the "fairy stories" and a great number believe them. These are also the people who are susceptable to advertising. So who would you aim your programs at?

Even the government sources are politicised to advertise the benevolence of the current ruling party.

It is a pity the ethics of journalism has degenerated to this level.

Barry

[GrahamL]

On funny stuff on television , I find ACA a pretty fair comedy :)


There endless roll out of creating news rather than reporting it has yet again
made them look incredibly foolish.
Instead of the trial by media they so desperately wanted conjure up
the media goes to trial in May :)
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/a-current-affairs-fake-hitmans-evidence-not-to-be-trusted-court-told/story-fn3dxiwe-1225794376837

[that_guy]

aca and today tonight is very one sided when it comes to current affairs...

[PCH]

Exactly right.

How many times do we see how some group of people - usually pensioners or people with more money than sense - bleating on about about how their 'investment' in Honest Joe's XYZ 200% Return Scheme didn't work out, - and how they've all lost their entire life savings as a result.

These people shouldn't have been allowed to have money in the first place if they're that easily persuaded to part with it ;)

What really annoys me is the way ACA et al always tell these stories like the participants were somehow forced into these schemes against their will. Like they didn't have a brain or something. These people are always driven by greed at this unrealistic expectation - and this is never pointed out. I would think the reporters have a duty to tell viewers that if you choose to be as stupid as these people were with their life savings, then you too can expect to loose everything just like they did! Well, that's the truth of the matter, and that would be the most effective way of reporting it.

It would, of course, ensure a deluge of calls from irrate people declaring their annoyance at having been sprung ;)


On the subject of our alleged News programs, I think it's pathetic the number of times significant world events score less time than 'cat up the tree' type rubbish. It's deplorable. I watch the SBS World News which is quite good. And ALL sports news and reports should be in a separate spot, preferably around two in the morning when all normal people have gone to bed ;) And ne'er the twain shall meet ! :lol:

Cheers

[Matt Wastell]

Today Tonight was my favorite when Naomi Robson (?) was the host. I used to watch it as my comedy relief after work. So insincere and patronizing – Mike Moore from ‘Frontline’ eat yout heart out – excellent!!!!!

[stephenb]

From working for the Nine Network for several years, I saw the conduct of ACA first hand throughout most of the 1990's, and I could tell several stories on what I saw. But one comes to mind immediately....

When ACA did a story on an alledged Sydney "dodgy" television repairman Mr Benny Mendoza and subsequent bombardments of promos labelling him a dishonest television repairman, he suicided three days later in his garage. This is well documented.

After much public back-peddling and spin-doctoring from Ray Martin, ACA and the Network, I was personally approached in the maintenance/engineering department approximately 2 years after this tragedy, by an ACA cameraman and ACA reporter asking me to induce a fault in a television for them to take to a local television repair centre - to repeat exactly the same story. I (and other techs) refused to do this, explaining that inducing an artificial fault in a TV could has the potential to cause further faults downstream in the TV, which may lead to the TV tech spending (justifiably) more time on the repair. The reporter could not comprehend this.

The best satirical representation of ACA/TT was Frontline by Working Dog Productions. Despite what the programs and their publicity machines said at the time, Frontline nailed the behavior of these tabloid programs perfectly. I urge anyone who wants an insight into how ACA/TT conduct themselves, get a copy of Frontline - especially Series 3.

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Stephen

This is a but off topic but back in the early days of TV there were very few "technicians" who could actually repair a TV or any electronic gear for that matter. The repairers were basically "tube jockeys" If you knew where the horizontal Output tube was, the eht rectifier, the syncseparator, the RFamp and a bottle of cleaning fluid for the Channel selector turret you could fix 99% of TV faults without knowing what you were really doing.

I don't know if you were at channel 9 in the B&W days but keeping those Marconi IO cameras going must have been a handfull. I ended up with them and had them running for about 6 years at home till I gave them to Channel ten for their museum.

Barry

[that_guy]

If i was the victim of ACA or TT I would sue them for verbal abuse and invasion of privacy.

[supernova1965]

Heads up on ACA on Monday what is your favorite Ice Cream top notch journalism there:rofl::P

[Matt Wastell]

I am sorry I missed it - I like current affairs articles on ice cream!:P

[Kevnool]

Sorry i got into this thread to late but the answer to this this is believe what you want........Thats it......

Cheers Kev