Sunday 25 November 2007

ITV and X-Factor disasters

After the disaster of the 14 year olds being included, and falling by the wayside in all sorts of shambles, the show has gone from bad to worse. Sharon has lost the plot, and seems obsessed with emotions rather than talent and skill. Louis is becoming more and more a grumpy old man, making snide comments with no relevance to the music.

Only Danni and Simon still care about the music, and continue to be supportive to all acts, not just their own. Whatever the outcome, Simon will again come across as the person with the most knowledge and understanding of both music and the artistic temperament.

HIDDEN VOTING
ITV also have an increasing problem as the show continues. By refusing to tell the truth about the votes, they are in danger of losing confidence - and money. They take our money but appear to have no requirement to reveal the truth. Therefore more and more people are questioning whether to pay any more. Many blogs are saying similar things - tell the truth or lose the audience support.

Saturday 17 November 2007

Education failures - context and content

I really do worry about the UK education system. So many kids today cannot spell and what is also interesting is they can sometimes spell but not the correct word (he “... had to except” instead of "accept").

Now I think this is interesting and it ties in with one of my theories.

Briefly, the medium is the message (McLuhan) and even more, context defines content. Most older people learned about words and language from reading and hearing. Therefore, in the main, the correct word became second nature. You heard it and understood the meaning, but you learned how to write and spell from books.

The past 15 years, say, most kids learn words and language from TV and games and their peers. And much of that content is in a context that is not related to grammar. And lots of TV and games are American, with quite different context (and spelling) to the UK. And the past 5 years, of course, the ability to write – and understand how to write – has gone out the window with emails and texts.

Furthermore, the soaps in particular, but also lots of so-called drama, is so lowest-common-denominator that cardboard characters shouting at each other is becoming accepted as ‘representative of real life’ (feedback from 17 year old). And don’t get me started on Big Brother and other ‘reality’ shows.

In short, we now have context at such a poor level it is no wonder the kids have little chance to excel.

Friday 16 November 2007

BBC hits wannabe crisis

Barely a day goes by without another BBC clanger. New show after new show is bad, pathetic, boring and dull. And the reasons are simple. The BBC has:
- lost its way
- dumbed down to a dangerous level
- forgotten than quality breeds success

Examples:
Jack Dee - not a funny line anywhere
Sound - wannabe presenters and sad wannabe performers
BBC Breakfast - shallow magazine items with no depth or intelligence

The only things working on BBC now are the established quality presenters and quality shows (Jonathan Ross, Have I Got News, Buzzcocks). Virtually every new show of the past year or two has fallen into the ITV/Channel 4 trap: mouthy presenters failing to impress, and low-quality scripts.