Media, Money, Power
Posted in Life
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When I started as a photographer, I worked for our local newspaper. Here I got the first taste of power. Simply waving with a camera, I could wade through crowds at a concert. Later I was amazed at just how well one is treated at an industry fair, if one has a press-pass. Free shuttle buses, good food, loads of information. Some journalists never seem to leave the press area - seemingly they feel that the pre-processed information is enough to write an article.
I think it would be a good exercise for any industry journalist, to remove his/her “journalist” badge when on the show floor. Just see how differently you are treated.
Back at the local paper, I had to cover local and regional sports events. Once I had to cover a club meeting. And the club officials tried hard to get me drunk - apparently they thought I would write nicer that way. I said no thanks, but wrote nice and true things anyway. That’s what you do in local papers.
But it seems to me that many journalists have the same attitude when it comes to serious journalism. They get their info off the PR department, eat some sushi, copy-paste the press-release and never ask a question twice - well knowing that their counterparts have undergone mediatraining. Where the first lesson is to never answer a question directly, but to set you own agenda.
Maybe that is one of the downsides of the quantity of tv channels? There is no money to educate journalists, no time to investigate. Since DV cameras are presumably simple to operate, journalists often find themselves having to do the job of the interviewer, sound recordist, camera operator, lighting cameraman and production assistant all at once.
I’m glad that the BBC is moving away from the journalist-cum-camera idea.
It’s o.k. to save money, but at some point it simply becomes cheap.
Anyway, back to media, money and power. A dangerous mix. Here in Norway we had a recent scandal when a former journalist of the most popular yellow press magazine, Se og Hør, published his experiences as an employee. Cash-book journalism, intruige-spinning, lying, bribing and spying are normal tools of his trade. People betray their friends for a bit of cash. Employees from credit card companies hand out credit card statements from the royal family. Nothing seems holy.
And ordinary people willing to do anything to get onto the screen. Big Brother, and worse productions.
Here a clip from a UK show. Not sure if it is fake or not. Does not really matter as long as it could be real:
