It starts to ‘make sense’ if you accept that these stories are produced with ‘business’ as their focus - pretend it is Simon Bridges doing an opinion piece.
That's the only way it begins to make "sense", Keith. In essence it's the old money/profits vs human wellbeing at play. Calling out this kind of media BS, pushing the capitalist line, allows the public to figure out what we're being fed.
You'd think so, Clem. Especially after the fiasco last year when an employee responsible for digital, on-line stories, was found to be editing stories from Reuters and elsewhere, and inserting pro-Russian sentiments.
It took me an hour to research the data (two, including hanging out laundry to dry) and another hour or two to format graphics. RNZ's resources would be superior to mine and a bit of cross-checking not beyond their abilities.
Our media is especially bad when it comes to "rankings" like these. They just publish the results without reading the reports. Recently 1News and other media ran with "Auckland the least-safe city in Australasia, new report says" and when you actually found the report and read it, it was a) just some random website using "user-submitted data and perceptions", b) part of a much larger report that actually had good results for Auckland that 1News decided to not lead with, and c) the crime part of it was all about "perceived safety" anyway, not including any actual crime statistics. 1News then used this for a jumping off point to say "it comes as the new government's tough on crime approach is introduced" as if that will fix it and not make it worse. Just pure propaganda. But none of that matters: most people only read the headline, so go away thinking Auckland is the least-safe city in Australasia. Now repeat for every "study" and "ranking" reported in the media and you can see why nothing gets better.
It's also another indication why the public's trust in mainstream media is so low. The public begin to perceive that "news" is often not so much factual events being reported, as someone's "reckons".
Nothing wrong with reckons. But it shouldn't replace factual reporting. Especially in the "silly season" (late December/January) when it appears most of the msm is away on holiday. Hence our current preponderence of shark stories.
Until the media realise that short-term gain from clickbait is ultimately detrimental to their interests, long-term, things won't improve.
It starts to ‘make sense’ if you accept that these stories are produced with ‘business’ as their focus - pretend it is Simon Bridges doing an opinion piece.
That's the only way it begins to make "sense", Keith. In essence it's the old money/profits vs human wellbeing at play. Calling out this kind of media BS, pushing the capitalist line, allows the public to figure out what we're being fed.
Thanks Frank. Good work!
Thank you, Clare!🙂
Well said, and why does it take the alternative media to state these obvious facts. RNZ should be more careful.
You'd think so, Clem. Especially after the fiasco last year when an employee responsible for digital, on-line stories, was found to be editing stories from Reuters and elsewhere, and inserting pro-Russian sentiments.
It took me an hour to research the data (two, including hanging out laundry to dry) and another hour or two to format graphics. RNZ's resources would be superior to mine and a bit of cross-checking not beyond their abilities.
I should offer them my services?
Our media is especially bad when it comes to "rankings" like these. They just publish the results without reading the reports. Recently 1News and other media ran with "Auckland the least-safe city in Australasia, new report says" and when you actually found the report and read it, it was a) just some random website using "user-submitted data and perceptions", b) part of a much larger report that actually had good results for Auckland that 1News decided to not lead with, and c) the crime part of it was all about "perceived safety" anyway, not including any actual crime statistics. 1News then used this for a jumping off point to say "it comes as the new government's tough on crime approach is introduced" as if that will fix it and not make it worse. Just pure propaganda. But none of that matters: most people only read the headline, so go away thinking Auckland is the least-safe city in Australasia. Now repeat for every "study" and "ranking" reported in the media and you can see why nothing gets better.
It's also another indication why the public's trust in mainstream media is so low. The public begin to perceive that "news" is often not so much factual events being reported, as someone's "reckons".
Nothing wrong with reckons. But it shouldn't replace factual reporting. Especially in the "silly season" (late December/January) when it appears most of the msm is away on holiday. Hence our current preponderence of shark stories.
Until the media realise that short-term gain from clickbait is ultimately detrimental to their interests, long-term, things won't improve.
And now for another shark story...