And so it goes

[Bramblethorn]

IOne might think the Murdochracy might want to think they reflect the views of local people, but no, ow they feel they need to hold the government to account and are telling voters they were wrong basically! No wonder readership is down!

I really don't have an issue with "holding the government to account". That's an important function of media, even (especially?) with a popular government. But there's a difference between accountability and a hit job, which is how it felt down here. It'll be interesting to see whether the Herald-Sun in Melbourne gets the same treatment as the Sun did in Liverpool after their coverage of Hillsborough.

 

[Bramblethorn]

THow times have changed. These days, I get most of my national and international news from online feeds. Headlines often make little sense. And lead paragraphs almost never take you anywhere near the story. Their sole purpose seems to be to keep you reading as far as the next advertisement.

Picking the right measures of quality is always a challenge. Somebody who's paid by the click is going to end up writing clickbait headlines. Somebody who's paid by the word is going to pad their articles with waffle.

One of the most disgraceful episodes I saw recently was in reporting that a participant in trials of a COVID-19 vaccine had died. One had to click through to the article and read several paragraphs in to find that the guy was in the control group - he had never received the vaccine, so his death was quite unrelated to it, no more newsworthy than any other random person's death. But somebody didn't mind spreading unwarranted alarm in order to get a few clicks.

Another reason for waffle in some sources is to deter theft. If you report the bare bones of a crime story, I can lift it and republish the same information with very little modification, because the facts of the case are not protected by copyright. The Australian version of the Daily Mail is notorious for stealing stories from other papers. But the padding is more likely to be covered by copyright, making it a little harder to just copy-paste.