Scotland's Media - Decision Time

[Norris Cole 0]

I didn't enjoy The Ref's piece on VB about Scotland's Mainstream Media. This is because his main observation is that Scotland's mainstream media has long forgotten how to at least make a pretence at impartiality.

It may manifest itself in different ways, but the end result of consciously negative or inaccurate reporting about Rangers and Rangers supporters is the same.

 

I'm well aware that in this supposed post-truth environment of the SNP, Trump and Brexit era, it is easy for the unhinged online obsessives to manufacture grievances and fake 'news', without facing the consequences of their actions.

 

There's a real trend in both the Celtic blogging community and the Nationalist blogging community for emerging bloggers to appear credible and relatively sensible to the unaware, before their scribblings represent something akin to a complete meltdown. Strangely, a good number of their flocks would appear to get dragged down with their leaders, which is the opposite of what should be happening.

 

So, they remain, to pollute our world with lies & conspiracies which get proven wrong again and again, and oddly, it doesn't seem to matter.

 

Common to both the Nationalist community, and the Celtic supporting community are the aggressive shut down mobs who try to bully anyone online who makes even a subtle suggestion that their crazy pied pipers are wrong.

 

The volume of times I have seen vile abusive nationalist tweets, only to observe said nationalist gushing about the club across the city is ridiculous. It is no coincidence.

 

I'm not normally an STV reader, but the piece written by Lucy Blackburn this morning about fake news, and the efforts that should be undertaken to prevent this, is a must read, and journalists and commentators in both the print and broadcast media would do well to study it in detail before they write or say anything more.

 

While the Ref's piece was pointed more at bias than fake news, it also points to a mainstream media in crisis in Scotland.

 

While many journalists and commentators in employment of the MSM see themselves as protectors of integrity in the industry, and the last true source of accurate information for the public, any remaining journalists who do things by the book, are being stabbed in the back as their colleagues damage their integrity with every misleading or inaccurate headline or article.

 

All it takes at any media outlet, is for one sub editor, one journalist, or one commentator to forego accuracy in favour of furthering an agenda, and their employer suffers, as prospective readers, subscribers or viewers walk away in disgust.

 

We have a situation in Scotland where it's not just journalists who are ignoring impartiality in favour of agendas, but Editors too.

 

In recent years, the toothless IPCC have upheld complaints of inaccuracy with regards to reports concerning Rangers from BBC Scotland and the Daily Record with both outlets apologising, before becoming repeat offenders.

 

Without a strong objective body to ensure accuracy, the public have other tools at their disposal, consisting of active protest and challenge, or the less active choice to simply walk away.

 

It's clear that the media is failing to understand its place in the brave new world, and that decreasing audiences are impacting their judgement.

 

So, many are crossing that murky border between credible reportage and clickbait, in order to try and maintain decreasing ad revenue.

 

Sometimes it's the headline that is the issue when it doesn't reflect the story, sometimes the social media clickbait headline (which doesn't match the actual headline) is the issue, and in some cases it's the article itself, with inaccuracies or misquotes throughout.

 

If you follow most of the Scottish Media outlets I would wager that you will have encountered at least one of the above yesterday, today, and most probably tomorrow.

 

If the mainstream media is to survive at all, the first priority above all else has to be accuracy, and gaining trust of readers, listeners and viewers.

 

Contrary to common perception, I believe (enough) people will fork out for content that is value for money to sustain providers. In media, that means verifiable accuracy. It has to be the top priority for any media outlet, or they become no better than a million and one websites that desperately seek clicks for pennies, for substandard fare written by glorified bloggers?

 

Should it be acceptable for a once great media institution such as the Daily Record to end up no better than utter tosh like HITC or footballinsider?

I'm sure there are decent journos at the Record that are horrified by such a comparison, and so they should be. It's down to them to prevent the decline from accelerating any faster.

 

Take this morning's Record, spinning a story claiming Celtic have turned £10M in to £50M with a buy cheap sell big policy. The piece goes on to detail the signings that have contributed to this 'profit', and it becomes apparent that even allowing for them using inflated sales figures, and ignoring a number of costly signings that have been sold at great loss, the total is still £40M, some £10M less than claimed.

 

This is from the paper that once claimed Craig Whyte was a Billionaire. It's embarrassing.

 

While many write off newspapers as finished, my view, albeit a minority one, is that they are at a decision crossroads, and while other commercial decisions will need to be made, the decision to pursue truth, impartiality and integrity will define whether the industry will recover or die.

 

My view is that people pay for decent product, which is why Vinyl is in the midst of a recovery, and why physical books have recovered to such an extent that e-books are on their arse.

 

I also believe that the vast majority of people, even those that get looked down upon by the liberal elites, simply want a source of truth they can trust, and they are not getting it, whether it be from silly nationalist comics like the Sunday Herald or National, right wing propaganda sheets like the Express, hypocrisy in spades from the trust fund run Guardian, or dodgy populism from the Record.

 

All of them, and more, are on thin ice, and it's their decision to make.

 

Do they have the balls for it?

 

If they don't I would suggest it won't only be fake news that will be an issue, but fake everything, as revisionism will also change history.

 

If that is allowed to happen, what integrity is left for anything?

 

 

http://www.vanguardbears.co.uk/article.php?i=140&a=scotland%27s-media---decision-time

[stewarty 1,876]

I think the majority of newspapers, regardless of their editorial stance, are capable of doing good work. But how often they produce it is a question of resource and focus. When they have a good story they know will sell, it'll get the focus its due and the work will no doubt have the impact it deserves. At other times, its a race to the bottom in terms of producing copy that fills pages in the most economical manner.

 

A couple of very quick examples:

the Telegraph in terms of the MPs expenses scandal and Big Sam's indiscretions;

The Guardian with Sports Direct (and JD Sports) and Wikileaks;

The Daily Record in terms of its coverage of us since 2012.

 

On the latter, Jackson can rightly be slagged off for his "wealth off the radar" guff, but there's no denying he did a power of sterling work in recent years to expose the rats. No other sports journalist up here came remotely close to the quality and consistency of his output.

 

Now, my point isn't that you can't point to areas where these and other outlets have been reprehensibly poor; you can, the Scottish Cup Final police stuff being a case in point, its just that they don't have the resources to maintain that level all the time.

 

Where I think they do blur the lines intentionally though is in terms of fact and opinion. Always a fine line when it comes to newspapers in particular. I also think the BBC have been reprehensible in terms of their ongoing attitude to dealings with the club and the complete failure to address matters in a satisfactory manner.

 

The next round of media deals could well be a turning point. With more and more clubs putting out their own content, it seems a natural shift towards selling media packages direct to fans, cutting out the likes of Sky and BT. If/ when that happens, what then for content starved outlets who will have to rely on even less scraps from the table?

[JohnMc 2,478]

Newspapers have never been impartial, very few have even pretended to be impartial. They've almost always openly supported a particular political party and that ideology has been editorial led. In times past that would have been a left or right wing a Tory or Labour support, in recent times we've seen 'nationalism' also enter the equation. So any demand for impartiality in newspapers is pointless, they are private companies and can support who they want and report stories to suit their readership.

 

Broadcast media used to try and be impartial but most commercial stations are right leaning and always have been, today Murdoch owned media doesn't pretend to be anything else.

The BBC is the issue, it does have a duty to impartiality and at times falls well short of it in my opinion.

 

What is often overlooked is economics. The BBC aside all the rest are commercial organisations that need to earn money. There is very little appetite to pay for content online, and so click-bait type articles have come to the fore. It's a shame but we've only got ourselves to blame. I stopped being surprised at how many Rangers supporters insist on reading articles from bloggers and journalists that they already know to be biased. Just don't, ignore them, they rely on your clicks, if you don't it will disappear.

 

"Aggressive shut down mobs" are not limited to Scottish nationalists, anyone who thinks that is deluding themselves. I know a few bluenoses who've suffered astonishing abuse online from fellow bears.

[SteveC 150]

Threads like this is why this forum is worth all the other Rangers forums put together - and then some.

[forlanssister 3,050]

The aforementioned Lucy Hunter Blackburn does a sterling job debunking the Nationalists spin and lies re education in Scotland. Though I'd hold back on praise for STV given their naked shameful, disgusting capitulation to the SNP regarding Stephen Diasley.

 

The quality of journalism in Scotland is at an all time low but I guess that's what you get when the relevant qualifications seem to be a HND from Cardonald College and a visceral hatred of all things Rangers. Pleasing one's masters appears to have supplanted virtues like truth and accuracy.

 

Once upon a time I took 7 papers per day which has dwindled to 2 and even then that's because I can't be arsed to cancel the subscriptions.

 

The only place you can find serious journalism published without fear or favour appears to be Private Eye if that goes then there's nowhere else to turn.

Edited January 5, 2017 by forlanssister
Shite spelling.

[Norris Cole 0]

The only place you can find serious journalism published without fear or favour appears to be Private Eye if that goes then there's nowhere else to turn.

 

The Spectator

[RANGERRAB 3,263]

I stopped buying newspapers long ago. I genuinely can't remember when I last bought one. The standard of journalism has been in decline for years now and shows no sign of stopping. Long may that continue so we can rid ourselves of these publications once & for all.

 

My major complaint though is paying the outdated annual licence fee to the BBC. Let it get its revenue in the real commercial world like other broadcasters do. That way it would need to produce decent programmes for everyone instead of trash like Off the Ball where the pondlife on it freely spout their hatred & lies without fear of reprisal

[forlanssister 3,050]

The Spectator

 

Indeed, though I seldom venture past the Coffee House section much to my shame

[ranger_syntax 3,778]

The Spectator

 

A fine publication indeed.

 

I have no doubt that a well read audience, such as you will find in here, will be very familiar with it.

[Bearman 9]

I stopped buying newspapers long ago. I genuinely can't remember when I last bought one. The standard of journalism has been in decline for years now and shows no sign of stopping. Long may that continue so we can rid ourselves of these publications once & for all.

 

My major complaint though is paying the outdated annual licence fee to the BBC. Let it get its revenue in the real commercial world like other broadcasters do. That way it would need to produce decent programmes for everyone instead of trash like Off the Ball where the pondlife on it freely spout their hatred & lies without fear of reprisal

 

Even their so-called 'funnies' like Only An Excuse is littered with cover-up/denials whatever!

 

It was on my tv whilst entertaining guests on Hogmanay but no-one was really interested in it TBH...I did stop to listen to the sketch on Police arresting the 'culprit' for hanging rubber dolls at the Paedoring, predictably two cops dragged a rubber doll out of a house...what irked me was how the 'reporter on the story' used the hanging of the dolls as Rangers fans preferring to dismiss hanging of Protestants in the sketch.

 

BBC Scotland spouting lies and hatred and also working hard to cover up republican sectarianism in Scotland.