Fires on TV
 

Along with most people in Australia, I have been watching the terrible news about the fires in VIC. I am starting to get a bit uncomfortable with the coverage being shown. Is it necessary to show pictures of people when they first discover the extent of the damage to their home or that a loved one has died or survived?

I think that the news programs are engaging in a bit of emotional manipulation to increase audiences. What they are doing is pretty cynical IMO - exploiting the grief of the Victorians and the compassion of the viewers to increase audience share.

I have every sympathy with the people, many of whom have lost everything. I have little time for cynical TV hacks.

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Couldn't agree more with you. I am interested in the news and the facts, but I am only interested in the personal stories when they are given in the right time & place.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...11/2488481.htm

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i agree,
its starting to upset my children now.

my hearts go out to everyone who has been affected.

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What did you expect them to do events like this are their bread and butter.

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well, if you read that story on the abc website, that should answer your question.

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But it will never happen will it, they're the media and like I said it's their bread and butter.

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That's sad but true. Glad I'm not in that profession.

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Totally agree.

ABC is being fairly responsible in its coverage, the other commercial channels (7, 9 and 10) have right from Sunday morning, been making a (tv) drama out of a crisis. Appalling, exploitative, with no regard whatsoever for the individuals involved. Alas it doesn't surprise me.

Seeing a husband and wife, newly reunited after thinking the other had passed away, with three (yes three) tv crews jostling for position, and quite literally thrusting the camera into the midst of their embrace was the last straw for me.

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The last straw for us, the australians included was the continual droaning on and on about aussie matehship, pride, community, people coming together.... one reporter actually said this would ONLY happen in Australia:confused:.

Like er 9/11, London Bombings, Tsunami..... people of all races from all over the world did whatever they could after a disaster. To say it would only happen in Aus is a bit of a insult to every other tragedy thats happened. I hated thet human nature, doing a bit to help, was continutally turned into some flag waving rant.

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Again totally agree. The statement that 'this' could only happen in Australia, which has been trotted out ad infinitum, is insulting, patronising, jingoistic and shockingly narrow-minded.

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Switch the TV off.

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That was the solution I came up with. I'm not a massive TV watcher anyway.

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As an Aussie I find it embarrassing when they continually say things like that, but I can see the psychology behind those statements, which are designed to instill pride, which in turn makes people want to do more to help.

As for the coverage - yes the commercial stations are milking it for all they can, unfortunately tragedy is a ratings winner, the more shocking the images the better the ratings, but again they serve a purpose, I doubt that the amount of money etc. raised would be as high if those pictures weren't broadcast, tugging at peoples heart strings.

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I have.

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Similar to the comments on the online newpapers about how "all we Australians" are pulling together. Even my niece asked me if that means those of us who aren't Australian don't care and aren't allowed to help.

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How many times have we had to endure the scenes of the planes hitting the World Trade Centre? What about the families of all the people who died at that time? They have to watch their loved-ones' deaths over and over even now, more than 7 years later.

Or how about Kim Phuc? It's been 35 years since she was photographed running after being burned in a napalm attack in Vietnam but she has to endure seeing that photo and all the news articles about it year after year.

It's news, which is what their jobs are. There have been disturbing images for as long as there has been photojournalism and there will continue to be. As TP has said, if you don't like it turn the TV off.

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agreed. news of this type should disturb and god help us all if it didn't.
don't watch the idiot box, go out and enjoy life with family and friends, reaffirm you are alive and well and be grateful.

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You can't be serious with this comment surely? People are living in Australia, I guess it's so much easier to group everyone as Australian than to list the nationality of all those who help that happen to live here and call Australia home...

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Her neice is in England, so the comment is a valid one for a kid who's not in Australia.

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Exactly. An English 8 year old, who is hearing about the fires over there and knows that I live there but I'm not an Australian. She just wondered why they don't want everyone to help not just Australians.

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Agreed, but in my opinion images cease to be news when they're ran in slow motion with Coldplay's latest sobfest lilting in the background.

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I think you let it get to you. I have spent hours watching TV and have not heard one comment about Aussie spirit or pride. Community yes! It might be true that a flavour of all that after a bush fire is fairly Australian. They probably would pull together better than say Californians after fires there - but I am not sure if the devastation has ever been as bad there.

To be honest, I think that Australians do have a vague sense, or more accurately flavour of character that sometimes Europeans haven't, (and of course some do). It's a function of the way the nation built so quickly in so short a time in fairly harsh conditions. Living in the bush can be tough - in a routine sort of way - in the way living in Shropshire isn't.

I don't get upset by that.

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I think it is a valid point, but it is clear it was misinterpreted(!) Australian is just a collective noun. Frankly I think the usage is just a media habit.

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Ive spent very little time watching The TV coverage, and have heard it several times. By the feedback on this thread so have others.

What bugs me personally about it, is we are raising our kids here, I dont want their heads pumped full of this narrow minded jingo stuff:sneaky:. Luckily they have been overseas, but how many aussie kids here never get that chance and actually start to believe "only aussies would react this way" . type raves.

i think they are just trying to whip up more emotion, to the point now its almost exploiting the images, showing very little respect IMO.

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Fair enough, I can understand an eight year old being confused by the term.

If this happened in any other country in the world, for example, the UK it would read 'Britons pull together' or in the USA 'Americans pull together'.

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Education is key. In my view, an overseas trip may not help as much as a family environment. Remember that 'narrow-minded' people will always have their time and day. The only time to worry is when everyone you know personally is like that - then it is time to sort out a new career, or a move etc..

It's quite possible assuming there are no losses this weekend that by next week, this might come off the boil......and the stories will focus on the rehab period.

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The whole sensationalism within journalism of all kinds, TV being prevalent, is way too much these days... I find I turn the telly off (well used to, I don't actually have a telly that picks up local TV stations anymore)... its like (although not always) that the TV station is making everything worse..

Em x

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Funny how when John Howard was in power the Cronulla riots were his fault a/c "Nationilism"and Aussie Pride.
Now the pathetic actor,notice how he cries Crocodile tears only when the TV crews are filming him,e.g. Vic fires or a bloke fainting in a church,is all Aussie Spirit etc.
Tearing up on cue and thinking that Australia believes in you is pathetic KDudd.

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yes, that's what we did, gets too much esp when they are showing the same clips again and again in different reports!

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In our local newspaper in Adelaide yesterday, there was a whole separate pull out section on what has happened in Victoria, along with more pictures of burned out streets etc etc. Then there was a separate article about what the identification teams are finding inside some of the burned out houses.
I'm sorry but there comes a point where I don't want to hear about charred babies and people huddled together and so badly burned that their bodies have fused together!!!:mad:
This sort of media reporting is just too much information - yes we know what happened to those poor people who could not get out of their homes but we don't need the gory descriptive details:mad::mad::mad:
It's just wrong....

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You read it then.....................

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I find it really insulting.

I am sick of the media portraying Australians as somehow better, more caring, more helpful, braver, "inspirational" (god if i hear that word once more i'll puke!!)

Yes, people are being brave, yes they are caring, but not because they are bloody Australians, but because they just happen to be made that way regardless of where they come from!!
I would hazard a guess that a large percetage of these people werent even born or raised in Australia but elsewhere and got their decent morals from all over the world NOT because they paid to get an Aussie passport and suddenly changed their outlook on the world.

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I was just thinking the same thing. Like the TV no one is making you read a news story. If you find the content upsetting either don't buy the paper or turn the page. You cannot blame the media for feeding this morbid curiosity they are a commercial business who's sole purpose is to make money.

Perhaps it is important for the nation to not only have the facts of this disaster, but to also see the human side of how people have been affected. We no longer live in an age where simple education will suffice, unless people can see the true effects in real life with all the heartache and torment they may go on believing it may never happen to them.

As for the "Australian" comments, I simply see it as trying to unite a nation. I feel too much as been read into this.

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Its the 'Hello'isation of the whole tragic event which sticks in my throat. Two hundred plus people killed in tragic and, what appears to be, illegal circumstances, rendered down into the lowest common denominator "Jordan got a new pair of tits" sensationalism.

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Australians caring and Australians being inspirational does not mean that = people are only like that because they are Australian - although it may of course well be a facet of the local culture if people are talking about the bush and wildfires because it is an attribute of life in Australia. It's also a handy collective noun for the media.

Just remember that Flea. Remember that apparently Brits were deemed good at keeping their spirits up in the Blitz. I'm sure the Germans bombed over there were also high in spirit. Mein Gott!

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Who cares what the media call it?

There are some damn fine human beings out there doing the most purest of work.

Badge: would the chavs of today have the same grit of yester year?

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Dont patronise me Badge. Of course the brits were deemed good at keeping their spirits up, along with helping each other out through the bad times. My grandmother being one of them! But the difference is, it wasnt rammed down everyones throats at every opportunity that it was BECAUSE we were British.
You didnt hear patriotic nationalism attached to the media reporting of the 7/7 bombings in London. You heard reports of PEOPLE yes, just people regardless of where they were from helping each other.

Most of the reference to all this was not aimed at the fact it was because it was a particularly Australian event, it is a constant chant in every situation they can possibly lay it on.
The Australian psyche in my opinion, needs to grow up a bit and stop this juvenile attitude.