HW: Tour Shirts

[M Holmes]

Nick Medford writes:

> On Mon, 26 Apr 2004 12:12:11 +0100, M Holmes <fofp at HOLYROOD.ED.AC.UK> wrote:
>
> I said:
>
> >>you know how it goes- give-em-what they-want, keep-em-stupid, keep-
> >> em-docile...
>
> To clarify- though I thought it was obvious- this is what I take to be the
> attitude of many people who write for, edit and publish tabloid newspapers,
> not a comment on people who read them.

Sorry then. I seem to hear a lot of people talking with disdain about
tabloid readers and their ignorance. Maybe I should quit drinking with
political activists.

> >This crap always annoys me.  My parents read the tabloids.  people
> >reading tabloids are quite simply not so stupid that they can't see
> >through all the cant telling them how to vote.
>
> Telling them how to vote? We were talking about a *gossip columnist*, were
> we not??

"Who The Stars Are Voting For!"

> Of course I don't imagine that everyone who reads the tabloids is stupid,
> any more than I imagine that everyone with a university education, say, is
> highly intelligent. I do however believe that the style and content of mass
> media in general is very much geared to reinforcing and maintaining a
> particular social and cultural climate.

I reckon that's inevitable though. A tabloid newspaper is in essence a
mixture of gossip and entertainment and in order to sell, or even be
taken for free amongst those which get their revenue from advertising,
will have to reflect the tastes and interests of their readership. A
certain amount of cultural leading and even conciousness raising might
occasionally be possible, but mostly people just want to be entertained.
Newspapers are literall, disposable entertainment.

Even amongst the broadsheet classes, most don't read newspapers because
there's information they'll professionally require. They read items of
interest to fill the time on the train or over lunch. Even the news
items serve mainly as the thinking middle class form of gossip. They
just natter about Osama rather than Becks.

> You yourself, if I've understood anything about you, are very keen on
> the idea that people do well to think for themselves and cultivate
> independence of mind and spirit- something with which I concur
> wholeheartedly.  Do you feel that our mass media is geared to
> promoting those things?

Not any more than soccer does, or most other forms of entertainment,
including Hawkwind. OK, we do get the occasional political rant from
Trev Hughes, but even being kind, we'd have to concede that they're
endearingly naive at best. It was also sweet of Alan/Ali to promote his
new religious views, and I give him due respect for it. Overall though,
we're there for the jollies.

There may be some forms of art which aspire to stimulating thought in a
serious way, though my own skepticism leads me to conclude that much is
merely pretension.

> >What I suspect is that people promulgating this excuse for a theory
> >really want us to think not that tabloid readers are stupid, but that
> >because they are not tabloid readers, and look down on them, they
> >must be incredibly clever.

> There are many aspects of society, and indeed aspects of human nature,
> including my own, which are not to my taste, but this is a very
> different thing from "looking down" on people.  Without going into
> details I've spent my whole adult life trying to help people at the
> very bottom of the heap.  The people I meet in my working life are
> generally those who are "looked down on" by society as a whole, and it
> is my belief that I always do my best to accord them respect and
> dignity.  In fact, I seriously f***ing resent being told that I look
> down on people, particularly by someone who has never even met me.

Indeed, I see that I've been too quick off the keyboard and I both
withdraw and apologise.

Mike