Good News and Bad News

[Daz Madrigal]

The good news is that by rattling through on gut instinct I got 5/7 right!

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/6111240.stm

The bad news is that I got the Bob Dylan question wrong by going for the obscure answer rather than the mundane one. So my method needs tweaking. Still its an improvement (or just plain fluke!).

[Pink Betty]

4/7 and i got the transgender bobby D wrong...plus another

[Daz Madrigal]

How ridiculous..the idea of a Communist transgender MP. Its obviously false!

[Nathan deGargoyle]

4/7 but then I haven't seen a paper or the news on TV since last Sunday.

[Xia]

3/7 but apparently I recalled the news from the last US Presidential campaign.

[purple joggers]

Evidently, whatever your results in the quiz, bad news wins.

I’ve recently seen studies of the content analysis of TV news programmes in the USA and Germany (the typical 30 min long programme), and there are interesting marked differences. While the average air time given to several categories in both lands is almost identical (e.g. Human Interest 8%, Accidents and Disasters 9%), and not too far apart in other categories (Business, Science, Arts, Celebrities), the air time given in other categories is very different.

The US gives twice as much coverage to weather as Germany (I always think of weather news as a sort of opium for the people, and so am not surprised it also seems unnecessarily lengthy in the UK too), whereas Germany gives twice as much coverage to sport as the US (perhaps reflecting the difference in lifestyles?). Also, over 30% of German news has to do with politics but only just over 10% of US news (the Americans apparently get comparatively little news of the outside world or exactly what their governments, state or federal, are up to).

The biggest difference is, however, in crime coverage. Almost 25% of overall television news in the US is given to crime, whereas on average its only 6% in Germany, and only 3% on the non-commercial channels, the German equivalents of the BBC.

Maybe part of the reason is that there is proportionally more crime in the USA than Germany, but that’s probably not the whole truth. The commercial aspect probably plays a big role in the US, the shock, scandal and voyeur attraction of the crime news item meaning the viewers are still there when the next advert comes along.

US studies indicate that 60% of people believe TV news is an accurate reflection of reality, but also, the more TV news you watch, the more you fear.
The studies concluded that there was a “disproportionate prominence of gore and violence on daily TV news broadcasts” and, for this reason, recommended that that crime content be reduced.

At the same time, the studies found viewers’ fear was often directed in the wrong direction, because viewers apparently don’t take in the details properly. Over 60% of regular TV news viewers in the US avoid city areas especially at night for fear of being a victim of crime, although in the US less than 30% of crimes take place in inner cities; most occurs in the suburbs.

I’d like to see how the typical UK news programmes compare. My impression is that the average UK TV news content is also disproportionally high on crime and thus similar to US coverage. I’d say local newspapers in the UK cover crime similarly disproportionally high too.

[mimi]

Only two and they were guesses. But I have been busy all week in my ivory tower.

[sandywinder]

Only 3.

I am not surprised about the Anti-Americanism from the French.

PJ you say that in America only 30% of crime is found in the inner cities but what is the ratio of inner cities to the suburbs.

Is it 1/2 or 1/5 or what? It does make a big difference.

[Daz Madrigal]

I'd have to pass it over to the American(s) here. I know that New York is now considered to be safer than London when it comes to crime and violence and that the tough regime of Guiliani and subsequent Mayors are given plaudits for the reduction in crime rates.

The only place abroad I've lived for any length of time was Utrecht and that was awhile ago. There's just no comparison. Its not a media driven thing at all. In Manchester at 1a.m. at night you can almost guarantee some violent episode and theres an aura of potential violence on a Friday/Saturday night. Utrecht was completely different. I know they have football hooligans over there but I didn't see any incidents of random violence at all.

So, in essence I dont think the news media has much bearing on things. I can't really speak for the US, I think Xia mentioned certain areas to avoid and I'd presume these were black areas.

[Nathan deGargoyle]

At the same time, the studies found viewers’ fear was often directed in the wrong direction, because viewers apparently don’t take in the details properly. Over 60% of regular TV news viewers in the US avoid city areas especially at night for fear of being a victim of crime, although in the US less than 30% of crimes take place in inner cities; most occurs in the suburbs.

But it's not just the amount of crime is it PJ? It's the type of crime.

Are people more likely to walk around at night in an area that has 100 burglaries a night but no muggings or one that has 10 muggings a night but no burglaries?

[sandywinder]

pinkgoyle said:

At the same time, the studies found viewers’ fear was often directed in the wrong direction, because viewers apparently don’t take in the details properly. Over 60% of regular TV news viewers in the US avoid city areas especially at night for fear of being a victim of crime, although in the US less than 30% of crimes take place in inner cities; most occurs in the suburbs.

But it's not just the amount of crime is it PJ? It's the type of crime.

Are people more likely to walk around at night in an area that has 100 burglaries a night but no muggings or one that has 10 muggings a night but no burglaries?

If there are so many burglaries they are not going to leave their house to go for a walk are they?

[Nathan deGargoyle]

[chavette]

5 out of 7 provin yet again that guesswork is as good as collige. Bangalore??? I would never've guessed that one but I'm no good about anything to do with Africa.

[Daz Madrigal]

Wayne told me he'd got 8/7.

Something tells me he's either being economical with the truth or his all round knowledge is slightly better than his Maths.

[purple joggers]

madrigalman said:

So, in essence I dont think the news media has much bearing on things.

I think the replies have missed the point, the replies dwell on whether there’s more crime in the inner cities or in the suburbs, or on which crime is more to be avoided, or on ....

Daz even appears to have understood that more reporting of crime increase crime rates, which wasn’t at all what I was saying (or else I don’t understand what Daz is saying, again).

The point is that the news media (at least in the US but probably in the UK too) over-emphasise crime, giving people a false perception of life and society, one result of which is that people then live more in a state of fear than is warranted by reality. It’s a state or outlook I observe not just in my older fragile relatives but in many.
This misbalanced emphasis by the news media seems to me not just irresponsible but also condemnable.