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Listening to the views of the ignorant is a turn-off
2:21pm Friday 4th July 2008
IT USED to be the case that the airing of extreme and ill-informed opinions was restricted to a group of cronies propping up the bar in the local pub or cabbies projecting their world view pronouncements over their shoulders, as caricatured in the movies of decades past.
Lack of knowledge or expertise in a subject used to inhibit the majority of the population from making sweeping public statements on issues of the day in a forum in which they were not sure of the reaction or might expose themselves to ridicule.
Would that were still the case.
I spend a lot of time travelling in my car and, preferring, on balance, the spoken word to music as a companion on my travels, I mainly listen to Radios Four, Five Live and local stations.
But the omnipresence of the phone-in on a topic of current interest has started to infuriate me to the point of despair.
They rely far too heavily and frequently on the current obsession with encouraging a naïve public to air its prejudices and lack of knowledge or understanding - to entertain the rest of us, presumably? "Listen to the morons! My goodness we're better than them!"
I marvel at the patience of the presenters who must surely be struggling to nudge their callers away from the parallel universe they inhabit, in which every opinion but theirs is unworthy of consideration and in which their uninformed bigotry is apparently acceptable.
I listened last week (briefly) to a Cro-Magnon man with access to a telephone who attempted to convince us that unfair treatment in the workplace was a myth.
His justification? It was illegal to discriminate on grounds of gender or race.
Therefore, it could not be happening; otherwise, the mighty weight of the law would have fallen on the perpetrators.
Nothing the perplexed presenter could say in words of one syllable could shift this unicellular organism from his position, so he continued to trot out his muddled mantra until I opted for another radio station.
Conversely, when someone who knows what they're talking about - and I don't just mean "whose view coincides with mine" - comes on any programme, they are always cut off before they have finished.
Why is it that radio programmes invite guests to comment on items of interest in the news and then consistently fail to give them enough time to do it?
Your Say YourBucks
WaspPilot, Maryland says...
3:09pm Sat 5 Jul 08
Ill-named "reality shows" clog the TV airwaves because they fetch high ratings and cost much MUCH less to produce than traditional programs with real writers and real actors.
Newspaper subscriptions are down natiionwide. The industry is scrambling to survive by finding a new business model. I've seen my bloved local newpaper make disconcerting compromises. It used to be the convention that letters to the editor were signed. The writer would assume responsibility for his/her opinions. Now, one simply calls a phone number, regurgitates whatever codswallop is stirring passions at the moment, and it is reverse published in the paper. How much easier to just bark into a phone instead of actually writing something - that would be too much work for some.
The paper has also added forums - like these - on its online edition. Again, inviting participation from the readers, who it is hoped will form an attachment/feel a sense of ownership/build loyalty with the product. And not all participation is bad. From what I've read on this particular forum, the comments have been thoughtful, well-informed, and most courteous. But how do you let some people into the tent without allowing in everyone?
The problem is well defined. So what is to be done? I've worked in the media for over 25 years - as a host of a jazz radio show, as a local cable TV producer, and as a writer for my own paper. I've rasied this question often with my colleagues, which results in lengthy discussion/debate, but few real asnwers. I would love to hear your answers addressed in a future column.
Your sayYourBucks
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David, Exeter says...
12:25pm Sat 5 Jul 08
If only there were a way to make it seem that sensible discussion, understanding and moderation was entertaining. Only then perhaps would we start to get a more representative picture of the British population.
It's sad that news and current affairs are no longer about informing, but are driven more by entertainment and rating values. Radio phone-in shows try to pass themselves off as the public voice notifying all who listen how they feel. When in fact, it is used more for the soap box "look at me", rather than the preferable "let's talk about this".