All entries for Monday 11 June 2007

Doidge and Snoddy – two peas, same pod

Make cuts to BBC News, or scrap BBC Three? I’m not alone in preferring the latter:

So-called ‘linear’ channels aren’t the way of getting 18-30 year olds interested in the BBC. I speak from experience here. We’re far more likely to watch something on YouTube or through the BBC’s forthcoming iPlayer. I’m not saying that BBC Three’s programmes should be scrapped. Just that the genuinely original ones should be broadcast somewhere else. BBC Three’s content often isn’t that original (there must be more repeats than on any other BBC channel), and the original programming could return to BBC One and Two, where it used to belong. Or be a web-exclusive, promoted on TV.

How about saving money by making BBC Three a largely interactive broadband service? It is after all aimed at the young. Hit shows could still get a broadcast slot. Space could then be made for a repeats channel for those with neither laptop nor iPod.

: 11 Jun 2007 17:53 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

I'm a Journalist, Get Me Out of Here!!!

A reality TV show in the States is to give a swimwear model a job as a TV journalist and see how she gets on. She’ll start by anchoring the main news bulletin tonight.

[Insert predictable joke about Natasha Kaplinsky]

Locals are up in arms about the affront to their local broadcaster’s integrity. But then this is a news station that apparently has “Stormy the Weather Dog” every day. I think the integrity boat has set sail.

Perhaps the show will reveal how hard it is to be a journalist. I might even give it the benefit of the doubt if it was a British show. But I’ve seen loads of American TV shows before. They’re going to make the locals look stupid, the job look easy, and the swimwear model look like Ed Murrow.

But if you’ve seen local TV news in the States before, you’ll realise that not even a bikini-clad model can dumb down the news.

^{Only some people will find this funny, but the model’s name is Lauren Jones. I kid you not.}

: 11 Jun 2007 17:33 |  Tags: Journalism Media Television United States |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem