I have a few days off from writing before my holiday so I spent a lot of time today checking up on the regular journalism industry links. There was one article that I read today that made total sense to me…
Think what people like me, journalists (although in my case it’s still at student level), do when we write stories. We write stories using certain words that distinguish our own slants and angles on a story being written about by hundreds of other journalists. With the changing of a few simple words, you could turn any old story from a good one to a bad one. If you study newspaper headlines on the same day and compare the same story, I can guarantee you that the angles will be different and what you end up having is two different accounts that have different views. This is our job.
You know the Conservative party, right? You know, the one lead by David ‘you must call him Dave or be subjected to hell’ Cameron? Well, recently they announced plans to allow newspaper groups to provide regional TV news using funding top-sliced from the BBC licence fee. This comes in the wake of the Digital Report, a document much hyped and analysed. Can you spot the problem yet? Yes, what the Tories want to do isn’t too dissimilar to what the Labour party are doing. Shadow Culture minister Jeremy Hunt has done something quite remarkable – not only bash his own policy but also praise his own policy. The Tories have somehow managed to turn something from a good thing into a bad thing, just with the changing of a few words and phrases.
By now it’s probably clicked in your head but I’ll say it again because I think it needs emphasising. The Conservatives are a bunch of wannabee journalists. You might think it’s strange of me to say this because, in some ways, the Labour party were also at points acting like journalists – twisting stories to make them sound brilliant and heroic (e.g. the WMD dossier). To me, this just proves that politics isn’t anymore about the typical policy discussion of old (as in two parties tell voters what they would do in one policy area) and, strangely enough, not about the people and how good looking they are and what personalities…it’s about what words are used and who can give a political issue the angle that will appeal more to voters. It also adds further fire to the debate that ideology is dying.
It also shows up the Conservatives to be twisted and sick and is further proof we as a country are doomed if they get into power.
