Media Watch

Monday 6th March

You can tell a lot about a country from studying its media. As I am the proud bearer of a GCSE in Media Studies, I ought to know.

In many ways, I think you learn more from the radio, which, stripped of pictures, seems somehow more open and honest than the telly and forces your mind to fill in the gaps.

So far I’ve only been listening to commercial radio stations here in Sydney and I mainly listen to them when I’m in the car in the morning. What surprises me most is the bad language, but also the attitudes that come across from the presenters themselves, which I’m sure they’d never get away with in the UK. Here’s a selection of the things I’ve heard during the past week:-

1. During a phone-in quiz at 10am, when the caller got a question wrong, the presenter responded “Oh you twat, that was so easy!”.

2. During another morning phone-in discussion, a woman described having left her husband because he made unreasonable demands, the presenters responded “Oh that’s shit”.

3. Presenters discussing dwarves (can we still say that in the UK?) as follows: “I looked at the guy and he was a midget. I mean, you know, a proper midget. He was starting a ruck with me and threw a punch so I hit him back. I said look, just because you’re a midget, it doesn’t mean I’m not going to hit you back. Honestly Jackie, a bloody midget!”.

4. Presenters discussing the morbidly obese British kid whose parents were threatened with charges of child abuse. (Laughing) “Honestly Kyle, he’s broken three bikes already. I mean, at least they won’t have to buy him another one, so it will be cheaper at Christmas” (cue lots more laughing in the studio).

5. On the subject of the battle over Anna Nicole Smith’s funeral arrangements “Oh for God’s sake, won’t the woman just lay down and die?”.

6. Interviewing an American actress and mother of four small children - “Which of your kids do you like the least? I mean, you know, if you had to get out of a burning building and could only take three of them with you, which three would it be?”.

My jaw frequently hits the floor while I’m driving; not because I’m especially offended by all of it, just through amazement.