london.media.event?
A friend showed this news blurb to me on the IMDB news page (its towards the bottom if you'd like to check for yourself, but I've pasted it all here):
London Airport Closure -- A Media Event?
Anti-war blogs on Monday said that an NBC report suggested that the arrest of the suspected plane bombers in England and the subsequent shutting down of British airports may have been contrived for maximum political show in the news media. The network, citing unnamed U.K. officials knowledgeable about the case, said that contrary to statements made by officials over the weekend, the attacks were not imminent; no plane tickets had been purchased by the suspects; some hadn't even applied for passports. (British police confirmed Monday that there was no truth to earlier reports that airline tickets had been found at the residences of the suspects.) The sources also said that British authorities had wanted to continue to run surveillance on the suspects but that Washington pressured them to move in quickly. The blog Truthdig asked why, "if the attacks weren't imminent, were so many flights canceled -- as though the suspects were actually at the airport, waiting at the gates? And why, if the attacks weren't imminent, did it all of a sudden become too dangerous to allow people to bring water bottles on planes?"
...just some food for thought.
Comments
That makes sense. Mass media has the power to completely blow things out of proportion and create incredibly unnecessary chaos. I should know it, I'm a mass media major. It's interesting to study that stuff. It is so frigging powerful.
Hey so am I! (Media Studies major, that is). That was the first thing I thought of when I heard the reports. As soon as the news report was released and before people knew anything about the situation, they were already 'tagging' words like 'Terror', 'Threat', and 'Al Qaeda', as though it was another media mad lib to use for their purposes.
*sigh*
Good to see another media major out there! Let's be neighbors!
Definitely :)
Here in Brazil, there has been these attacks from this gang (it made the news for a couple of days, not sure if you heard about it) where they were burning buses and attacking cops and what not... The media covered it fine, but turned it into a frigging circus. It got to a point that they were even putting shit up that had nothing to do with the incident just to fuel the fire a little more and it got so pathetic that they stopped checking their facts and some radio stations and a lame tv station even spread the rumour about bomb threats. Got so bad that we had martial law instead by the media!! They suggested we go home, no one from the gov't did, and everyone fled becaus the TV said so. UGH sometimes I hate seeing things like that so contorted and twisted. :( Anyways sorry about the rant. I'm done for now, I swear :)
Thanks for posting this. It certainly makes you think. It's a shame that we can't trust anything anymore, especially anything related to this administration and its so-called "war on terror" to justify every and all actions.
I was always a bit skeptical about believing what i heard on tv, specially after i had journalism class in highschool with this one teacher that made us check our facts in at least one news agency from every continent (for major events of course) and it struck me how differently and how slanted things can be. specially after getting into college, i am even more skeptical about believing things, specially if they are political-related somehow.
Facts are usually few and precious, but it seems very few people actually care about that anymore. Sensationalism just gets so much more attention. It would be nice to see people question news content a little more instead of taking it for the word of god.
Not that I hate it or anything, I love my course and the media and all that. It just always makes my tummy churn when I see it used for blatant manipulation.
I think its great that media study and theory courses are starting to be introduced into the academic community. The mass media really has become an unstoppable circus, and while there may be no immediate actions to control or cease it, the scarier thing is when people stop being critical and stop thinking by taking the mass media at its face value. Nothing is pure when displayed in the mass media, everything is fractured and cropped by mediated frames, and people need to understand that.
indeed. but that is also something closely related to their education level. unfortunately, some people just dont know *how* to be critical of the media. I'm not sure how much that applies there, but here, the poorer and less educated you are, the less likely you are to be able to critique something and pick it apart and doubt it. A big chunk of the population is functionally illiterate and the television is their only source of information. Trying to explain to them that they ought not to be so reliant on the TV is a tad tricky.
the interesting thing in my opinion, i'm from England so have had the pleasure of seeing all of John Reids statements on the events, is that the threat level was only put to 'Critical' (meaning an attack was imminent) on Monday morning, not before. You can view this in two ways: either they didn't want to cause panic and alarm by putting it to a higher level earlier, or it's all a sham and everyone's gone a bit crazy about the whole thing. I'm not sure if it made international news, i suspect it didn't, but the Metropolitan Police have been coming under a critisism recently after the Forest Gate incident and many people over here are seeing this as either the same thing again or as a PR exercise to boost confidence in the Police over here. This didn't help.
On 'the media' i think we're lucky over here (the UK). The BBC is a wonderful institution as it was set up to be impartial and still maintains this, OK maybe not 100% but still to an impressive degree. People like Jeremy Paxman are wonderful, they ask the important questions and won't stop till they get an answer It's rare to have someone not willing to let politicians get away with side-stepping uncomfortable questions. This is brilliant and a must see for anyone unaware of Mr. Paxman's work.
Hey tenzerothree, hats off to you for all of those fantastic links. I'm really glad you chimed in on this conversation as it is really intersting to see how all of this is being interpreted in the UK. I have heard that the BBC is much better than a lot of the US mass media, and I should definately check it out more often. Thanks again :)
:D anytime. i just thought you might all be interested in an opinion from across the pond.
I started reading more BBC online and listening to BBC news hour when the mass media really got out of control with providing the masses with single serving news coverage. Not only does BBC provide another opinion, they also can be relentless in their interviews. They have the backbone and integrity to ask the hard questions to their government officials, which is a rarity here in the States. Also their coverage is alot more extensive than what we have here so you get coverage of more global issues than just the hot topic
@.tiff.: You should start listening to BBC news hour on your local NPR affiliate if you have problems accessing the video feed.
@tenzerothree: Thanks for being "our man on the scene" in England. Would you happen to be a football (the beautiful game, not the Yank's version of it) fan?
there's always the world service too. you can get that everywhere. if any of you guys use macs i'd really recommend the little bbc radio widget. 6 music can be great.
and no sorry not a big football fan. i prefer rugby really but don't exactly take an active interest in that either. not really a 'sports' guy. sorry for shattering the 'football hooligan' stereotype :D
tenzerothree: great links, i liked them as well.
aaah imparciality... sometimes i wonder if people down here know what that is.
i'll have to look in more to the BBC stuff!
tenzerothree: Figured that you weren't and I wasn't looking for a hooligan. Just trying to find some blogs that would belong to "sensible" EPL football fan on Vox. Sorry for the offtopic .tiff.
ooooh i have one comment: yay soccer! lol
a brazillian that likes soccer? Never heard of that before.
yea yea yea. :P