In an attempt to link our social media lecture with a flavour of the week topic, I post this blog.
I once remember my Nan saying to me that “the bigger they are the harder they fall”. Simple words to remember, but words obviously forgotten by two highly paid broadcasters who in the last fortnight have fallen into a media black hole so deep it must seem almost bottomless.
The technological advances that journalism continues to go through has meant that anyone entering the profession today has to face the fact that their work will not only be viewed, read, digested, appreciated and glorified but also criticized, disliked and at times torn apart by the public at large. And trust me the public is very large with their views.
Technological tools, like the blog, has given people not only a key to get their work, ideas and opinions onto the internet, available to anyone, anywhere at any time to be viewed. It’s almost like people have been given their own personal mega-phones and are being encouraged to shout at the top of their lungs. There was a time in the profession where journalists didn’t have to answer for work they had produced, whether via print or broadcasted. The difference is today anyone in the business should know that the public will want to voice their opinion and that a story or performance might be criticised. Today it’s a two way conversation.
The comedy duo of Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross say they have always prided themselves on being entertaining broadcasters for a young and fresh audience. Surely then if this is the case should they not have expected the backlash received from means of a new social media that is constantly regenerating itself for a young and fresh audience?
I should point out to those that haven’t realised, that what has taken place has been a carefully constructed two pronged attack from an old and new style media on Brand/Ross and the BBC. Had it not been for the old school print media (in this case the Daily Mail) picking up on what took place during the radio show in question two weeks ago, this incident may have passed by with no more than 150 complaints max. However the print media did get hold of it, then other editors from other newspapers and newsgroups decide there is a selling point and ran the story. More broadcasts are made on the topic, more interviews are recorded, more people are photographed, more blogs are typed, more conversations take place in the office or on the street with the words Ross, Brand and BBC in the top line, the more people have something to say on the matter and the more people are outraged. The result is 30,000 complaints and rising.
Seems simple maths to get the end product, the main question is do we understand the answer?
Some people will feel sorrow for Brand/Ross and the BBC in that they have been targeted by the media to sell papers and air time and that the whole incident has been blown out of proportion. Others, outrage that two idiots like this should be paid such a high sum and be allowed to broadcast.
The reality is had it not been for the media whipping this story into the frenzy it became, the affair may have passed everyone by. But why should it? People have a right to know what has been happening, whether they listen to Radio 2 or not. Likewise they have a right to voice an opinion on what has been reported. For many it will justify the endless question of why they pay their licence fee.
The bottom line is that even though Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand are comedy entertaining broadcasters, their actions of impersonally prank phone calling a pensioner with sexual reference to his granddaughter was outrageous behaviour. Who would get away with this? I have no doubt that many listening at the time would have laughed, I can’t even deny that I wouldn’t have myself. The point is you take a step back and look at the incident and it’s simply not funny the second time around. I would ask anyone who listened to the show live and laughed, and people reading this blog, that if sexual jokes were made about one of your family members behind a phone call in front of a national audience would we not be upset like Andrew Sachs? I would also like to ask Mr Ross and Mr Brand, one of which has two young daughters, would they not be offended, upset and a little bit angry if when they are grandfathers, a young broadcast entertainer made jokes of this nature about their offspring?
Many would be able to predict the answer.
My problem with this whole scenario is that too many entertainment broadcasters are overpaid, think they are untouchable and beyond getting shown the exit door for their actions. Brand has already sacrificed himself before the crucifixion from the media could be finished. But he won’t care, he is back on TV tonight, just on another channel, no doubt after a three or four year exodus he will be back involved with the BBC in some form. People in the chain of command behind the scenes at the Corporation have already lost their job over this issue, more will no doubt follow, pink slip in hand. I would like to think that Jonathan Ross would get the sack as a result of his actions, but he won’t. The loss of other people’s jobs and careers will be on his hands from this point on, all in the name of entertainment and comedy.
A last warning, but not for the last time. Maybe the saying “the bigger they are the harder they fall” doesn’t apply to all anymore (all though I hope it would). Instead of falling and landing with a big bump that knocks you, your just suspended.
So there we have it, social media allows all opinions to be amplified, shared and open to discussion. The “phone prank incident” as it will no doubt be called for years to come, will spark opinions from left, right and centre, but it takes an event like this for people to find their voice and get it heard.
My Nan also told me another saying that stuck with me and one I have always believed is very prolific and applies to everyone. I would implore anyone involved in the past fortnights events, whether in the media, twitish overpaid broadcasters in question and even Georgina Baillie, the young woman at the centre of this entire episode “what goes around comes around”.
Images from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1081414/Georgina-Baillie-Im-thrilled-Brand-Ross-suspended-way-treated-grandfather.html, http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1873006.ece
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