mediaroar - Fight Back!

mediaroar will be taking a temporary hiatus, for 3 small weeks. This will be mainly due to the fact that mediaroar will be in Mauritius on a honeymoon. (yes mine..)

Still, mediaroar has every confidence that during the 12 (twelve) goddamn hours of flying time, my total abject fear is sure to be punctuated by deep annoyance at the in-flight media offerings…

be safe, be seen, and as Ted says in ’scrubs’: Catch you on the flip side.

grrrr xxx

mediaroar loves news. Indeed, mediaroar takes his hat off to ALL the boys and girls who never see daylight, just to ensure that we are all provided with news, 24/7. I mean, what would we do otherwise?

News is an expensive buisness. Highly trained, highly capable staff, lots of cameras and ‘virtual studio makeovers’ costs literally gazzilions of spondoolas to keep running.

mediaroar was disturbed to hear talk this week of financial pressures at auntie Beeb causing problems. Talk is cheap. Speculation however is far more exciting. Wild speculation has covered the alarming possibility of plans to axe the BBC’s only news show that is actually any good flagship current affairs institution, Newsnight.

Aside from letting Politicians heave a huge sigh of relief, what on earth would old Paxman do without it? Go dancing of an evening?

Aside from the shocking fact that you can bet your left slipper some accountant has broached the idea, if this did come to pass how on earth could the BBC dumb-down their news coverage any more?

Oh.

Speaking of ‘dumbing-down’. Hats off to the creatives over at SKY News for their latest promo. It’s not often a news channel is honest enough to tell you that if you watch, after 15 minutes you STILL won’t know what to think…

Genius.

Grrrrr x

Something in the media grinding your gears? Are YOU going to axe Newsnight? Do you UNDERSTAND the SKY News trailer??

Tell all, you’ll feel better…

hello@mediaroar.com

mediaroar loves a good drama.

Like us all, mediaroar loves tension, passion and nail-biting scenarios.

Step forward the Champion’s League semi-final! Where two loaded giants of English football battle for more money glory and a place in the final of ‘Big Cup’…

(mmm…shiny!)

mediaroar understands that each channel has their own way of doing things, and in general ITV Sport is certainly ok as a last resort watchable.

The promo’s run every 30 mins, the coverage starts 30 minutes early, and the presenters get ‘pitch-side’ at every fucking opportunity.

None of this bothers mediaroar. But a little coordination is probably in order chaps…

What do I mean? Well, for example:

Say the match has gone into extra time. Say the teams are panting, the managers are looking serious, and the dreaded draw for penalty takers begins. The commentators start to give insight into the psychological compl

Ahhh yes, NOTHING but NOTHING can get in the way of our Sponsors! Take that Mourinho, you C*nt!!

Still, it was possible to follow (almost) all the excitement. After all, what could possibly be more important to ITV Sport than the big match??

Grrrrr x

Something happening on media-way that smells rotten to you? Share it baby. You’ll feel better…

hello@mediaroar.com

x

Testing…yes it f***ing is!

mediaroar is attempting to pull his finger out…but it appears to be stuck at the moment…

mediaroar is getting technical, and changing the blog! For the better! Touch wood.

Grrrrr x

This is an example of a WordPress page, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many pages like this one or sub-pages as you like and manage all of your content inside of WordPress.

This is an example of a WordPress page, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many pages like this one or sub-pages as you like and manage all of your content inside of WordPress.

mediaroar finds himself a bit coy. Approaching a once-used path, now slightly overgrown and neglected…

mediaroar is pleased to announce that the roar blog is back!

Almost…

A brief glimpse at the date of the last entry, along with a look at recent headlines is surely enough to recruit a few more sceptics and disenfrachised consumers to engage in the struggle to …fight back!

( Dammit Eamonn!)

GrrrrrjinglejanglejewellryGrrrrr x

mediaroar has spent the last 10 years working in the crazy world of media. mediaroar understands that there are, indeed, many tricks of the trade that are, frankly, needed in our 24 hour consumer tastic industry.

now sometimes not all is as it seems. ..

Natasha Kaplinsky, mediaroar has it on good authority*, needs a staggering 12 hours in makeup just for a lunchtime bulletin. Tom Cruise, among others, stands on a box in every scene he films*. While we are debunking media myths, I can tell you, loyal reader, that SKY news perennial Kay Burley is, indeed, celebrating her 87th birthday this christmas*.

Enough already.

mediaroar accepts that there are certain measures used to to ‘facilitate’ broadcasts. Correspondants may not be actually sitting in front of the UN building in New York, it could be a computer trick. That’s OK. It gives context. ‘Ready, steady, Cook!’ is not live, but simply recorded a number of weeks in advance, and edited to produce a coherent show. All good. The laughter you hear in the background may not be made by real people- it’s all for effect.

Some broadcasts are not live. They are pre-recorded. Live is not always practical.

Take last saturday morning. mediaroar prised open his welded eyes, and heard the comforting tones of chubby all-star Eamonn Holmes, doing his usual inept highly popular show on Five Live. There were guests, phone-ins, competitions, banter…oh it’s sony award stuff.

(Fat head, fatter wallet)

After staggering all of 10 yards into the lounge, who should ‘pop up’ on ’saturday kitchen’, why it’s me old mucker Eamonn! “Gosh!”, mediaroar exclaimed, “Eamonn must have recorded this mid week - greedy busy boy that he is. “text in to pick the winning dish!” a chubby northern ‘chef’ pleaded. mediaroar noted the extortionate cost of the competition.

So this show must be live.

Oh, but hold on, there was a text-based competition on Eamonn’s Five live radio show too! At the same time…

now, mediaroar loves the pre-record. They save time and hassle. Poor old Eamonn has the SKY news flagship ’sunrise’ show to worry about when he can be arsed to show up 5 mornings a week, plus any number of light entertainment shows, and now the saturday kitchen, and his weekly show on the wireless, poor lamb. BUT, don’t fucking take the viewers money during both, for fuck’s sake! I understand the licence fee is chicken feed for a beast like the Beeb, but mediaroar is pretty sure Ofcom has rules about that sort of thing.

The thing that really ruined mediaroar’s cornflakes, was not the magic dual appearance on TV and Radio, or the fact that if you are not careful, you can end up watching the Holmes all day on every channel if you time it right. Oh no. Saturday was Eamonn’s birthday you see. What are the odds that he was at home with the kids, and that both shows were an utter, utter sham??

Grrrr x

Do you have as much air-time as Eamonn? Do you have as much money as Eamonn?
hello@mediaroar.com

*possibly, probably, definately utter bollocks.

• It is not so much 24 hour news, as, erm, 8 hours of shows repeated three times over a day - all of which can deeply confuse mediaroar on a bleary-eyed saturday morning. (still better than Anthony Wozza-Tozza, mind.)
• mediaroar warns you that honest reporting, and ‘alternative news agendas’ can prove depressing. It really is grim in certain parts of the world. It is funny how reports of another brace of Palestinians dead tend to be backgrounded by western news channels, yet this is presented with a stark brutality by Al Jazeera, at the top of every hour. mediaroar acknowledges that this is powerful stuff, and that should be applauded, and perhaps the channels at the Whitehouse should be re-tuned - but is it asking too much to end the bulletins with and ‘and finally’? Some glimmer of hope? Something, anything positive? Perhaps that’s the point - Don’t expect to flick over to X-Factor and forget what you have just watched. Bravo Al Jazeera!
• Talent is a very subjective word. mediaroar’s mother would, almost certainly, argue that mediaroar is very talented, though many may take issue. Al Jazeera have poached some premium talent. Tales of talented camera-men, producers and reporters trippling salaries to make the switch have long been heard. But if you have that much money, how can it be that the first face of Al Jazeera that mediaroar saw was this one:

(Ah butter wouldn’t melt, would it Darren?)


mediaroar is sorry that he doesn’t have any amusing or pithy final comments, I have perhaps been watching rather too much Al Jazeera, it all seems a bit frivolous now. Still, give it a go, broaden your mind. You can’t watch too much, as you’ll see programmes repeated - they really need to sort that out. You will also become all too aware of how fucked up so many people’s lives are, and how utterly hopeless the situation in the middle east is. It’s not without it’s own bias, but no more guilty than the other news channels, all of them.

Makes you wonder though, SKY, BBC, Al Jazeera, FOX, CNN, et al. Why can’t ALL of you be truly balanced and independent?


grrrr x

media pissing on your chips? Are you a Barbera Serra fan?
hello@mediaroar.com

mediaroar has been feeling rather guilty recently.

Yes, yes, I have been as faithful to my blog as Bill Clinton was to the next President Senator Hilary.

mediaroar has also been feeling bad for his old chums at ITV. Falling share prices, no boss and as popular as Christiano Ronaldo in Kent.

Whispers were heard over the last week. “wait and see, we have an announcement that will knock your socks off”

mediaroar was not too excitited at the thought of ITV5.

Lo and behold, mediaroar’s socks were well and truly knocked off. ITV have only gone and poached the BBC’s big Kahuna!












(michael Grade, probably safer in Najaf than white city.)

Michael Grade has worked, well, everywhere. ITV, BBC, Channel 4, Hollywood, BBC … It’s a bit like mediaroar’s C.V. with proper jobs.

Competition is great. Hope is great. ITV is not great, but things can change.

So what would it take to buy this man’s loyalty prise a top exec away from his dear BBC?
mediaroar likes to think it was that this man simply couldn’t resist 8 million big ones the challenge. If anyone can do it, Michael can.

mediaroar offers this caution to the newly crowned busiest man in Britain: While this will make a fantastic, and early, 64th birthday present, careful the stress doesn’t get too much Mikey, after all - you can’t take it with you…

mediaroar wishes Mr Grade the best of british with his new project, and also to the Beeb, who are now, probably, nervously eager, waiting to see how much money the government will let them add to the licence fee - and they have lost their bulldog.


grrrr x

Do you earn more than Michael grade? Something in the media pissed on your chips? Are you still watching lost?

hello@mediaroar.com