The story so far: Kyle and Jackie had a radio show. They often did segments involving the public and the public’s real and honest feelings, reactions and stories. One day [29/07/09] they did a show where they asked a 14-year-old girl, with the presence of her mother, some very revealing and personal questions. On Air of course! In the end they messed it all up by being insensitive and unprofessional when the girl revealed a rape experience.
Now the tone of this blog may sound a little pretentious, or even judgmental, if you are in any way offended by it. I say too bad. I, unfortunately for my own intellect, read in today’s paper that Kyle Sandilands will be fired from the Australian Idol and possibly his radio show on Austereo's 2Day FM following the repercussions of the above mentioned incident. Personally I don't watch or listen to either - mainly because they're crap. But what did get my attention is that The Age in their report on this, used the comments of fans from the Idol website as a source of valuable reporting! I don't know what is more embarrassing for the Australian media, the fact that grammatically incompetent people can make it into the news:
Blogger Melissa wrote: "I think this whole thing has been blown out . I feel the mother is to blame she knew about and asked her daughter that question not Kyle. Get off his back and I will think twice about watching this year." The AGE (4/8/09) The AGE
Or, the fact that there are people who actually believe that Kyle and Jackie O aren’t possibly the worst Radio DJ’s in the country. Their stardom and popularity gives them a unique opportunity to instill some positive ideas but they have time and time again chosen the insensitive (and unfortunately popular) gags to up their ratings and fatten their wallets.
Mainly I think it is the consistent lacking in Entertainment News to provide any enlightenment or food for critical thought. I went to my usual ‘diner’ for such appetizing ideas - ABC’s Media Watch. Sure, there is a sarcastic tone of judgment from the show but just have a read at what the two Radio DJ’s have hosted in the past Media Watch. For a balanced news item it would have been a little more impressive if The Age had used a comment from this website:
Keep Kyle and Jackie O off the Air!
Why does he get paid so much money to be a jerk? Nothing he contributes to radio is ever positive; it always has a rude and negative slant to it. Which is why I stopped listening to them a long time ago! (Orange Girl, Media Watch website)
Finally a comment on the pathetic self-defense article by Kyle, he made an attempt to clarify the situation. Stating in his letter on The Punch that in hearing the 14-year-old girl confess to rape while hooked up to a lie detector on his show with Jackie O – stunned him. Seriously?
It stunned him so much so, that he was unable to (with a 7 second delay) cut the show from air and blame it on a technical fault. A technique they teach all hosts of radio shows in the first week. A technique which to a Radio host of so many years (excuse me here not sure of how many exactly but at least 10) just didn’t occur?! SERIOUSLY? I say pull the plug on the whole damn thing, sponsors get out, and radio station re-model your programming.
Lastly, The Age, up your damn standards and introduce some critical thinking to your readers, even those who read Entertainment News.
end.
You’ve brought up one of the most intriguing issues that I think is plaguing journalism, particularly news reporting in this age of the internet. Actually, one of the articles for this subject (Week 1 I think) brings this issue up – and presents both sides:
ReplyDelete1) Supporting your point of view (how much authority do these ‘Web Voices’ have – especially when they can barely spell – and how can leading national dailies use their commentary as authentic critique from a credible source!)
2) Opposing your point of view (this is the new slant that journalism will and should take in the future – these are the new voices of a real democracy – irrespective of whether they ever sat in an English grammar class or not!)
http://www.newmediastudies.com/intro2004.htm
My views…hmmm. Trying to take the middle path…
Bloggers opinions could be the new voice that news journalism would probably have to start dealing with from now on;
A good opinion that is properly cited and comes from an authentic source has nothing to do with whether the source can speak and write fluent, accurate English! It’s the opinion we are interested in, isn’t it? Coming from a non-English speaking country, and knowing that more than the half the world probably doesn’t speak any English – I think that is an unfair mechanism to judge someone with. Especially when all we are interested in is whether they have some valuable information to add to the news angle, present another perspective or some such polemic or rhetoric. Several politicians and businessmen who make news everyday, speak (and perhaps write) atrociously. But, still end up making it to the news. Then why judge a lay blogger based on fluency and command over English??? Does internet literacy assume English literacy and fluency? What are the benchmarks guys?
On the flip side, how do you validate the credibility of a source on the web? Do we have rules for that yet? It’s all work-in-progress, like many other auxiliary issues – cyber crime, cyber copyright, etc. Do we believe that such controls lie only in the hands of those we traditionally associate as ‘gate keepers’ of moral, ethical, social codes? Then aren’t we being puritanical ourselves? With double standards? I don’t know…I’m still grappling with these perspectives…
Thanks for your comment. Just to clarify a couple of things though. I come from a non-English speaking background and if it were not for the safety of spell check I would be in big trouble.
ReplyDeleteMy gripe has nothing to do with spelling mistakes, it has to do with the quality of reporting in a leading newspaper. The content is the problem.
My comment pertains to the lack of editing control and the diminished sense of trust in our media when we learn that their source is our neighbour who frankly isn't that interesting or intelligent. That is not research!
As to spelling, well we all make mistakes. Just recently Senator Fielding had a little trouble with his words. There are always excuses but lets be honest, we expect a certain standard from certain people and certain institutions.