Pinned
Hello my name is Raymond :3 This blog’s just a clusterfuck at this point so I gave up on doing a proper intro post.
I post about a lot of fandoms, don’t expect exclusively one thing from me. I’m Bri’ish. The blorbos I have could violate several laws (/j.)
Have a nice time on my blog :D I love you!
Literally me btw ^
So good at feeling not so good at expressing
Okay so this interview with Bob got put back in my recs on YouTube recently. And a few things occurred to me (other than that he should dress like a geography teacher more often for, Reasons 👀)
I cannot imagine a musician being interviewed today and being given the space and time to answer the questions the way he was- to the point where one presenter is saying to the other "hang on let him answer." The panel had done their homework and actually *been* to a Rats gig before speaking to him. They weren't looking for a soundbite or headline, they were genuinely interested in having a conversation with him, built upon his answers to get into depth on the topics, and pushed back when they thought he was being avoidant without being awful about it (unlike a lot of modern interviewers).
And as for Bob, he was intelligent, articulate, and able to understand the wider picture of where what he was saying sat. On one occasion he even accepted them saying "no I think you're wrong there," you can see him think about it before going "ok then, probably." Bear in mind this was about six months before Mondays was released, he's not as *polished* an interviewee as we're used to, but you can absolutely see the roots of how that developed. On both sides there was challenge without becoming conflict. I think a lot of modern presenters and indeed celebrities could learn a lot from watching this.
His cute little face when they show him the Lone Ranger clip is adorable as well. Plus he managed a half hour interview without telling anyone to fuck off. Someone get my boy a medal.
As someone who actually works in journalism, I can Not take the “character turns on the news to hear about plot event” media trope seriously because all I can think is:
would you be willing to share some advice for the class? (no pressure, of course, but now I'm genuinely curious what the actual standards are)
Of course!!! So I’m a producer for local news, which means 90% of my job is writing the scripts you hear anchors read when they’re on air. And there are two sides to consider when writing those scripts; the ethics, and the actual writing style that’s VERY specific to broadcast
First, the ethics. At the end of the day, news is a business. We need money. How do we get money? By you watching our broadcast. Why would you watch our broadcast? Because you TRUST us!!! And what would happen if you stopped trusting the information we give you to be accurate? You’d go get your news from a competitor station and we just lost our money. We DON’T want that, not to mention the fact that there’s a whole ass LAW called ~defamation~ dedicated to SUING YOU for saying bad shit about people. Even if you’re found innocent, lawyer fees are still expensive as shit just to get to that point! We don’t wanna be sued!!! And we want you to keep watching our show regularly! Which means WE CAN’T TALK SHIT NO MATTER HOW BADLY WE WANT TO
The news does NOT make any claims that aren’t guaranteed fact. Even if we’re pretty DAMN sure something happened a certain way, we don’t put that on US. We’ll keep the words in someone else’s mouth instead. Let’s say a worker for an auto company has been arrested for stealing parts from the store. We wouldn’t ACTUALLY say that. We’d say “Police say this worker is the one stealing parts from the auto store”. Key word: POLICE say. We didn’t say SHIT because it’s not our JOB to say shit when the person hasn’t been found guilty yet. Other people say shit and we just tell you about it
Of course, media bias is a very real problem. Some stations like Fox News are obvious about it, sometimes journalists have very human biases that can accidentally spew into their writing. It’s human and it happens. But FAKE news? Straight made up bullshit I pulled outta my ass??? I would be fired YESTERDAY. We’re not supposed to make even the SLIGHTEST of mistakes in our facts, let alone straight up lying. I’d have to flee the goddamn continent if I wanted another chance in broadcast after that shit
So that scene in a film, where the main character watches TV to see ~the media~ spreading rumors about something and blow it massively out of proportion??? Not happening. Unless it’s the student newspaper or that opinion show starring Old Ass Anchor Man that 5 people watch on Tuesdays, that doesn’t happen. The Daily Bugle has NO credibility
The main thing though is the writing style: broadcast writing is a very specific type of writing. We write concisely, conversationally, and in present-tense as much as possible. We’re live on air and we know you’re just playing us in the background while you make dinner, so we’ve only got one chance to get your attention and keep it. The flowery language is kept to a minimum, we write in active voice as opposed to passive (thus throwing away all essay writing skills I received in high school), all while trying to keep you engaged and interested
That example I mentioned in the tags — “It’s been two weeks since Manhattan was hit by a meteor.” That’s a shit beginning story sentence!!! First, it’s been TWO WEEKS. I’d bet MONEY everyone already knows about that meteor and then some, why are we telling it all again??? Are you gonna tell me something new about the meteor or are you gonna recap everything I probably already know by now? Second, that’s a BORING opener!!! Aside from the fact that I already KNOW all that, why should I care? How does the story connect to me? Where’s the hook? Also, that’s sentence isn’t written like how I would talk!!! It sounds like a damn robot!!!
So, instead of “It’s been two weeks since Manhattan was hit by the meteor”, maybe it’d be “New Yorkers are still struggling to find places to stay after their homes were destroyed by the meteor”. It gives a human approach, the story sounds like it’ll focus on the newest developments of getting people housing, people already know what the meteor is, and it’s written like I talk. There’s definitely more to broadcast writing than that, but those are the biggest things that tell me the writer has no idea how a newsroom works
Reach WITH IN To your LOCAL dirt and you may find A Friend And Boy…
The internet is an evil place where you will meet the Greatest people of All Time
the average person with bad taste can be into some extremely banal garbage but when you get close enough to someone with otherwise good taste that they start a recommendation by going off on a preamble about how they don't necessarily recommend it you know you're seconds away from hearing about some real torturously wretched dogshit
friend from work will have you watch a two hour movie where you can feel every second as it passes by, but enemployed movie mutual will put you on the kind of shit that feels like crawling on cobblestone until emaciated
people are reading this as the latter friend recommending dry, pretentious cinema. that's not the case. not that kind of situation. you're getting no enrichment out of this. I need you to understand they're making you watch Gooby because "it's kinda good"
