Poland - royal baby bonkers?

Just shows the degree to which copycat Poland has been tabloidised. Not only papers patterned on the Sun and das Bild but nealry all the media have been whipping up royal-baby hysteria, as they did during the Princess Di crash and funeral. I respect Britain's royals -- at least they stand for tradition -- it's the way this and other items are exploited by the sensation-seeking meida that is socially downdumbing and brain-cluttering. Ever see the magazine rack in a typical Polish supermarket -- a handful of news weeklies, magazines devoted to cars, sports, dogs, babycare, etc., and a prepondernace of colourful rags wallowing in and spreading celebrity slime... That's to infect and exploit those whom popcommercialism cannot get hooked on brainless computer games. As long as there's a single złoty in your pocket, they'll get you one way or the other!

This was the best Headline from a British media outlet: Royal Baby.

I don't get the infatuation, I don't even get the royals. How they haven't been outed yet is beyond me.
I saw a good tweet from a well-know UK comedian regarding the birth, it was something like:
"One dole sponger gives birth to another dole sponger"

However, I think it's the way media has gone, they have to use stories for a long as possible and get as much out of them as possible, regardless of whether it's actually newsworthy or not.

For example, the BBC journalist, Simon McCoy who said in a live broadcast from outside the hospital "oh, plenty to come from here; none of it news:

youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cQZKooDv1D8

And let's have a look at how media reported the birth of this royal sprog's auld fella: King in waiting, King Bill.
It made the front pages, but they did realise back then that world events were far more important. Unfortunately we're living in an age where the media has been totally dumbed down. Is it because people are dumber? Of course not, media needs to appeal to the most common denominator in the chase for money. They care not about spreading information anymore, they need to fill column inches and sell advertising space. Anyone who believes that the mainstream media is interesting in real news is either deluded, an idiot, or a mainstream journalist, or all three.

The Times:

The Guardian:

Are you sure you are not talking about Rydzak? it looks like his job description.


Ah...of course...how could I forget...pop commercialism...Good that you remind us...
I find the coloured press actually quite entertaining and often so outrageous they become actually funny....They make a good pass time when you stand in line in Carrefour on a Saturday morning. The thing is not to take them serious at all.

Remember it's the silly season and we also now have 24 hour news coverage and the internet.

Someone posted a very telling photo on Twitter. A comparison of two pictures taken of the crowds outside St. Mary's, Paddington. One when HRH Prince William was born, one the other day. In the older photo the pavement opposite was crowded with wellwishers, in the newer photo it was crowded with international film crews.

Excellent evidence of the giant strikes made by popcommercialisation. Today it's the paparazzi who take centre stage at the behest of their tabloid masters. Why: only to downdumb the public and exploit their downdumbness to the hilt: £££££££, $$$$$, €€€€€€, zł zł zł zł zł zł....... The dumber the poublic the easier to bamboozle and screw!

Or healthy progress.

I don't necessarily agree with this. I actually think the public are far smarter than the media give them credit for.
I would love to see the purchase figures for yesterday's papers, I doubt that they were enormously higher than usual.
I would love to have seen some kind of survey done too, I believe that satisfaction levels would've been pretty low among readers because of the blanket coverage.

I think people are far more media-savvy now, I would presume too that quite a lot or people yesterday would have avoided stories regarding the royal sprog and clicked on more interesting actual newsworthy things.

No doubt it's an important event, afterall this kid will be a future king of England....unless we witness a Medici-style takeover attempt undertaken by ginger Harry. But those with half a brain know that it's really a non-story and far more important things were happening around the world, all accessible at the touch or a button.

Things like this blanked coverage are just further evidence that tradition media is on its last legs. Instead of diversifying their coverage/news they are relying on the same thing to sell to the same target markets.

I find it all very boring. Perhaps women like these things, but to me it's a yawn. I really couldn't care less, and I don't know anyone who thinks differently except media people who have to report it and pretend it's interesting or exciting for the sake of advertising revenue.

That's probably ture, but in general the down-dumbed education system is taking its toll. In every country where schooling has been turned into fun & games, kids are whisked through from class to class, everything is made super easy and teachers are super-indulgent so as not to antagonise parents.

There's no getting away from the fact that the paper media are in sharp decline, but how about the celebrity, gossip and trivia news sites on the web. There are loads of nonsense in the cyber-world -- astrology, reality stuff, prn and just plain garbage. Someone is obviously lapping up the swill if advertisers are willing to bankroll such sites.

Perhaps we need a return to the serious journalism as written by the kind of 'journalist' who can see a mob of rioting Polish Neo-Nazis burning TV vans and then write about Polish patriots who want to protect their country?

How about a quote to back this up? I don't expect one because this is yet another anti-poster attack to wriggle out of saiyng what you think about today's tabloidised media.

As said many times before, I'm happy to quote from and link to that news article but first I must have the permission of the PF member whose real name is given there; PF rules forbid me from linking to it otherwise.

Harry
If you're such a stickler for rules and regulations, then at least tell us what you think about today's tabloidised media.

It's rubbish and nearly as bad as the utter bollocks that tries to pass for some of the media directed at Polonia.

See, we actually agree on something.

That might be true, but it's far less expensive to advertise on a púrn site that gets 10,000/5,000 unique hits a day than in a national newspaper y'know.


I'd agree to an extent, some schools take it too easy on students, but I know from teaching here in the past that the youth of Poland are far more driven and determined than their counterparts where I come from. I'm still very optimistic for the future of Poland.

We should remember too:


Who said that? Socrates!

Yes, that is probably still true. Probably more intelligent in terms of general knowledge about the world. Many American teens aren't sure if the Civil War (1860s) was in the 18th or 19th century. The point is that the Polish media and entertainment industry are mainly promoting and glamoursing role models from the materialistic, consumerist West. I read somewhere that Poland has Europe's (or maybe Central Europe's) highest percentage of overweight and obese children. You still don't see in Poland the same number of fat slobs you do on American streets, but little by little....