It’s taken a strange turn, the world of information and ‘news’. Reminding me of Casualty, the TV series. Which I used to enjoy as a kid, the drama, the tension, the NHS being presented as heroes. Good bit of programming, in more ways than one. But it was a good watch, for a time. I started to go off it when a change to the set up happened, and it took me a while to notice. It slowly stopped being about the person the accident was going to happen to, or had happened to and shifted away from the ‘victims’, to focus on the staff. The affairs, the dramas, the back-stabbing etc. It became a weird soap opera, rather than a medical drama. And although I spent time watching soap operas too in my youth, the constant, crappy and hectic drama of fictious people eventually made me wonder why I wasted time watching it. So stopped. As you get older, you start to see a lot more of that hectic drama in real life and people, so no need for a fictional version to run alongside that. But by switching the set-up to be about the staff rather than the patients lost me, it was no longer interesting.

Anchorman 2 – the film. I liked both of them, funny and quite ridiculous but the sequel was interesting. Showing how on a basic level, when you can’t get the scoop, or find any real news to report, you either make it up – or you be the news. The news becoming the news. And we were on the brink of it, after we went for multiple 24-hour news channels, more newspapers than you really need, constant drivel and information intermingled and filtered through to the masses. And filtered it is, even the instantaneous internet world is edited and filtered, checked and restricted. So, there is still an overall editor calling the shots and deciding what is fit for public consumption. Or not in some cases, but they go with it anyway. No longer on the brink though, corporations have fully crossed over into being part of it rather than just reporting it. Weirdly though, not because they don’t have real news to report, of that there is plenty, but it doesn’t quite fit the narrative that corporate forces want people to follow.

And as we know, once you become the observed, you are no longer the observer, and you can’t be both. So, the influence that newspapers, TV stations and faces that represent them is dwindling and being redefined with everything else. Those faces no longer command respect, as we know they are just the mouthpieces of the media machine, and are the stupid ones for maybe not seeing it before, thinking they were just there to ‘let us know’ what’s going on. Hardly ever giving thought to the why, just blindly watching news and reading papers, seeing headlines and ‘paying attention’ as they call it. Being aware of the world around you, or something like that. But knowing now, it was an awareness steeped in falsities and of what someone else wanted me to know or be aware of.

For years we have had invasions of privacy though on their part, investigations into people, well known and otherwise, for exposes, scoops and front-page news. However, it seems to have taken a strange turn in the latest round of the news being the news. And when it’s their own, or them being used for news fodder, suddenly it becomes a topic to discuss about rights and privacy. And it is a problem and strange part of society that we have, that people feel the need to tear people down, gossip about others, spread rumours, or just plain old humiliate someone – by way of a publication no less. Why are we like that as a species? Taking delight in others misfortune and wanting to see people fail, hoping instead you make it? And then what? Have everyone wishing you had failed instead of being happy for you? It’s an odd thing, and I get a smile on my face when I see someone else do good, or have a happy moment, so when trying to imagine what it must be like to see the same thing and feel hate or have a mean feeling towards it, is a difference I can’t get on board with.

Yet it’s one that has been cultivated. You’ve Been Framed comes to mind here, and I laughed like many others for the silly misfortune that befell people, slapstick, I guess. The presenter of that show had another that I wasn’t so comfortable with, Beadles About. It was good, but painful, and I really felt for the people being wound up and tricked. And really, I found it hard to reconcile that we would cause people untold stress and worry, just for ‘entertainment’. All laughing at the end when they revealed it was all a joke, but there being a strange tension of ‘but what if they had died? What if they had flipped out and hurt someone?’ I didn’t enjoy watching it in the end, as it was screwing with what I believed were real people, their lives and their emotions. That wasn’t entertainment for me personally, and carried over into other programming. Once you can see it’s a set-up, or people are being used beyond what they think they are there for, it becomes painful to watch. Just like the news. So, no longer there for reporting what is going on, they are there to enact a painful script and are being used for purpose, thinking they are there for something else possibly, or are complicit, either way it’s a struggle to watch and listen anymore. And just like I mentioned in my article Early News, why is it really necessary that we are pummelled with information, updates and stats from chosen countries all over the world on a daily basis anyway? So, again and as with much these days, it comes back to what purpose does it serve and why…

(c) K Wicks

Back in the day, we are led to believe the masses couldn’t read and were generally illiterate. So, how did they get the news and all the necessary info to know what was going on in the world? They didn’t, and as far as I can tell, it wasn’t required. You didn’t actually need to know what was going on in a town or village far away at any given moment, let alone other countries.

It seems we are a bit obsessed now with news, having gone from newspapers and set times for programs, it’s now relentless and continuous. But if you did need a way for people to be ‘informed’ with what you wanted them to know, I see how maybe the Town crier would have been the first talking newspaper, before printed ones. Shouting whatever the general folk needed to be aware of. Seems even more intrusive than these days, where you can avoid it, to a point. Because they require it for the continuous charade of politics, democracy, emergencies and so on. It moved on from shouting the news at people, to newspapers as mentioned above, once everyone was educated enough to read them of course. Even within that, they still managed to have class divides as with the rest of society too. Giving the impression that only smart people in suits read newspapers, or people of a certain background. Must have realised they were missing out on lots of money and ways of manipulation, so the ‘daily rags’ were put out there. And how did they make this accessible to everyone before television? Newsagents, sounds quite formal really doesn’t it? Agents of the news, to distribute and pass on whatever was deemed important by editors and their financiers to move and sway public opinions and wants in a certain direction.

And this is where many have turned unwittingly into a town crier now given the platform of self-publishing and social media, probably myself included. Noting the irony when someone says they can’t believe people haven’t heard of all the impending changes, or devious organisations behind it all. So, they brief them. Thereby ensuring that person is now aware, but it’s a double-edged sword. Because it also spreads the propaganda and makes sure it filters through to even the most distant and unconnected folk. Even though it’s no secret and we are seeing very real actions as a consequence of those organisations, some people aren’t equipped to deal with it all mentally, either ignoring it, or just plainly not seeing it or that if they do, not seeing the problem. Not after such an exhaustive few years, so I can see why there may appear to be apathy towards it. Others just don’t have the capacity to see where it goes, or understand the further consequences to come. But whatever does happen, you can bet there will be a carefully crafted and laid out story to appear when needed, for distraction and entertainment, and to keep the focus shifting from one thing to another, hoping that no-one will see How it starts to tie in…

(c) K Wicks