Does anyone else agree with me, that the news headlines provided by ITV, BBC and even Sky now, seem to aim for sensational headlines and try to ramp up the interest levels? By far I would say the biggest culprit is ITV, which views more like ‘The Sun’ newspaper, in the way it portrays the news items so sensationally.
My main gripes so far include:
1) The dreaded video wall: For goodness sakes people, why do you need to stand by the video wall when more often than not, all you do is stand there, you do not point at anything to indicate things more clearly, you just stand there wandering around the studio.
2) Why is almost everything in a ‘crisis’: The word ‘crisis’ should only be used in extreme situations, maybe a natural disaster, but never the low ranking political tom foolery which the term often gets attached to.
3) So many analysts: There are times like in wars where more detailed explanations of some of the terms/tactics etc are required, however there are occasions where we have someone in who just seems to be there to support one opinion and offer nothing to the news story other than to either fill empty time on a slow news day or to push for one view.
4) Opinion, opinion, opinion: There was a time where we could digest the news as we saw fit and that was the end of it. A conversation with friends and family, this is where the debate happened, but now we can text, phone, email and I am just waiting for the day when we can send carrier pigeons and smoke signals. Although opinion is a great resource, how do we know for sure we are getting a good varied selection when any are read out? Again this could be used to mislead and sensationalise.
5) Animations: Do we really need animations to explain portions of the news when in actual fact it is more a tool to be quirky and funny rather than showing us a better understanding of an item making it pointless. Two politicians, one either side of a see-saw is not why I watch the news.
6) The shoe: Why oh why when there has been an explosion and innocents have been injured, is there a shot of a single lonely shoe on the ground? Should we be concerned that the other shoe is not near by?
7) Relative or worse: When a politician or celebrity has done something wrong, why do we meet his long lost father or former English Teacher, who hasn’t met them in about 40 years. What possible bit of information could they add to the story?
Let’s please go back to the times where the news spoke for itself instead of trying to compete for viewing figures!
If you can think of any more gripes, let me know.
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