RadioNewsWeb.com |
EDITORIAL COMMENT
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April 2000 |
Tricks
of the trade or deception?
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Tricks or deception?
Following on last month's comment about the need for reliable information this month's comment is on an issue we would like to sound-off about personally. It's the question of when tricks of the trade become deception of the audience. Attitudes?
There seems to be a regular habit now by many broadcasters,
who for various reasons cannot obtain the" real thing", to substitute
an artificial creation but not make this clear to the audience. The issue
is linked to attitudes to openness as with the Australian cash-for-comment
enquiry (See RNW April 3
and March 29 ) but also,
we would suggest, to one where it's considered allowable to hoodwink the
audiencewith the real sin to be caught at it. This it seems to us, can
in a very short time destriy trust which has taken years to build and
is more akin toe asset-striping than good broadcasting. It may not matter
that much in some areas but where news and current affairs are concerned
or where drama purports to represent something akin to the whole truth,
it's a serious matter. And it's even worse in those countreis that consider
themselves to be bastions of freedom and democracy. After all, how many
people anywhere would take serious the recent "vote" by Iraqi
journalists naming president Hussein's son, Uday, the "Journalist
of the Century?" But what of the situation when a major Western broadcaster
puts out programmes, soundbites or pictures which are not what they seem
to be and are portrayed as? Then, to paraphrase, it becomes "Experience
you can't trust!" What we do do!
So what is done wrong? And how far is
there anything new? The second is easlier to answer. New digital technology
makes manipulation of both audio and pictures frighteningly easy compared
to the situation only a few years ago. People can be moved in still
picturesc (done by reputable British broadsheet newspapers), backgrounds
can be changed or incidents faked in television (done by major US networks).
interviews can be totally invented (done by one British tabloid whose
then editor now heads a major UK radio company) and so on. |
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