Ever wondered when watching – Have I got news for you, Never mind the Buzzcocks, QI or lets face it any topical comical or quiz show there is an established set of guests. These guests often are described either as celebs or those that have come to fame through different routes to show business. Or, is there a more sinister aspect to this? Is there an secret agenda that allows only the select few to appear to comment – Why do the same faces appear on Newsnight (BBC) or World News (BBC)…!? Is it favouritism or is this another example of media management of telling us (the people) what they (the media) want us to hear and then repeat?

I thought we all paid our taxes not to watch reality TV but to be educated with commentary based on real life events. History tells us that during World War II and the bombing of selective cities in the UK by the Germans the UK media was extensively controlling (by the Government of the day) the release of information to ensure that sprits would be kept high, panic low and a spirit of defiance to the enemy (this was in a way a ‘spin’).

On another note, recently, the BBC were accused of disrespecting the importance of religion and although they produce a wide a varied set of programmes, it is the content of programmes that are not labelled as religious that need to be monitored. For example, who is checking what is being said about religious groups or mis-guided storylines in plays?

In recent years programmes such as ‘Heaven and Earth’ are shown to feature different religions and occasionally their customs. This is a move in the right direction but mainstream scheduling is not allowed to be interfered with. The BBC appears to slot religious programmes in the early Sunday morning or early Sunday evening broadcast slots. You are lucky if you get to see any religious programmes during the week, unless there is a late night daily broadcast to coincide with a religious period for example Ramadan for the Muslims.

In summary, although some ethnicity has entered the broadcasting world, for example you only have to look at the excellent presenters on CNN (from Atlanta USA) or both the BBC and ITV channels, the broadcasting agenda has not changed for either general entertainment or religious observance. A lot may also be connected to who is in power in terms of the ‘heads’ of media corporations, links to marketing and political positioning.

Unfortunately, I also fear for the Blogging world – Recent articles reveal to me that it is also about to become commercialised – with organisations establishing themselves as outlets of so called independence or independent thought!

One way to help get a ‘clearer picture’ (sorry about the pun) is to use the mechanisms that exist at media corporations. They need to know that many are not happy about the way some aspects of license fee are used. If we want value we need to ‘keep the faith’, work hard to write and fight for a greater presence of true reality not ratings.

Categories: 2005