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Do the media need Bale ’ing out?

Nocando

Well-Known Member
Mar 11, 2012
2,945
4,385
Sensationalism, inflating the facts, a parent/child relationship, these are all traits you expect with the Sun, the Mirror and even the ‘Independent’, yet one place you don’t expect it from is the BBC. The blind faith the general public once had in these ‘national institutions’ has all but evaporated and left the mouldy residue as everything else moves forward.

Whilst I appreciate using a sports ‘hero’ as an example often cheapens the argument, I do need to put this initial message into context; I am, of course, referring to the media’s representation of Gareth Bale and his ‘plight’.

It’s a well-known fact that the written press has been playing ‘catch-up’ and second fiddle for the last few years. Firstly “the revolution that would never last” rocked the printed press to the point that eventually they had to make unprecedented changes in order to resuscitate their failing industry. Then, just as it appeared disaster had been averted, along came the second technological blow; the advent of social media.

Of course there’s another argument that this field hasn't been resuscitated per-se, but merely swallowed up into another empire to help promote that empire’s primary focus; usually TV subscriptions. However let’s ignore this puppet master theory and assume there is a smidgen of purpose to their work.

So what has all of this got to do with Gareth Bale you ask? Well everything.


Because we’re now in a world where much of the media doesn't know what they are or what purpose they serve, genuine exclusives are few and far between and therefore the what-should-be redundant method of sensationalising a story appears to be the only conceivable tactic a journalist has in their armoury to sell a story, or to get hits on their website.

It doesn't stop there; the well educated writers are not even writing anymore. Instead they prefer to scour the internet for interesting stories and then either re-badge or piggy back onto this existing story or worse still, they enter forums looking for a meal. They've become desperate.

It doesn't matter if the original source is unverified or not in the slightest bit true (when has this ever stopped this industry?), however what’s important is that the writer can thrash out a two minute article within a deadline, to satisfy their editor’s lust.

There’s not much new about this methodology; however what this industry seems to ignore and underestimate is that the reader is now in a much better position to make their own choices and to form their own opinion, using the array of information at their fingertips. Gone are the days when a reader is spoon fed a bit of information and gobbles this down without thinking, now the user is in a better position to use mediums such as twitter or news-feeds or Google to really explore whether they’re being told facts or over cooked baloney. In fact with these instantaneous mediums the reader is streets ahead of any published article and therefore this ‘news’ is anything but new to the informed reader.

So relating this back to Gareth Bale, what we had were hundreds of articles that were either too lazy, to out of the loop or too slow to consider the truth and decided to regurgitate the unrealistic rhetoric that appears in well-known mouthpieces such as Marca.

It got to the rather embarrassing situation when the British press were quoting Marca articles as fact, adding a bit of their own spice and then Marca was re-reporting this added bit of British spice as fact. It became a self-fulfilling circle of evidence-less fabrication.

There was this rather amusing situation where Daniel Levy (the Tottenham Chairmen for those that don’t know) was in L.A, Hong Kong and Great Britain (at the same time), and was flying back to either have crunch talks, or to give Bale the silent treatment.

It’s a bit of a tragic state of affairs because I genuinely believed that the phone hacking scandal would have woken part of the media to adopt a more forward thinking approach, and not just about ethics and transparent practices. I would have thought that the changing technologies and how we interact would have been a prime opportunity for the press to embrace their readership and provide some thought provoking scenarios, where the reader can participate and share knowledge in an instant. Not be treated as a brain-dead moron that relies on the press for news.

However the reality of the situation is we have a puppet controlled media that continues to peddle their out dated methods in the vein hope they make a name for themselves.


Well, we can probably all give them a suitable name.
 

guate

Well-Known Member
May 12, 2005
3,270
1,486
Nocando, your logic certainly makes a lot of sense to me
 

turbo_lennon

SC Supporter
Dec 9, 2006
121
106
The BBC does seem to have changed tack this year....not just on Bale but on Rooney and Suarez as well...reporting on rumour stories with no quotes. Perviously I would reply on the BBC to be the place I would go to obtain solid, concrete info which has actually happened. Perhaps they have changed their editor?
 

vigospur

Well-Known Member
Dec 10, 2006
1,115
807
I think you are getting way too agitated.
Not many people are going to vote for the media reporting transfers etc. only when officially announced by the club. People enjoy the rumour and speculation even when it is crap. And this site runs ITK which is mostly pretty useless.
The secret is not to take it too seriously.
 

Nocando

Well-Known Member
Mar 11, 2012
2,945
4,385
I think you are getting way too agitated.
Not many people are going to vote for the media reporting transfers etc. only when officially announced by the club. People enjoy the rumour and speculation even when it is crap. And this site runs ITK which is mostly pretty useless.
The secret is not to take it too seriously.

No agitation here dude. Just long held the view the media have lost their identity. This was just an opportunity to discuss it. Particularly when we only tend to here their side of things. The point about the media not understanding their user is quite relevant I think.
 

robbiek

Member
Mar 3, 2006
98
97
The problem for the traditional newspaper industry is that its revenue is being decimated by online. They have been battling this for over a decade. Many titles have succumbed. Recently a new survival model is emerging from the ashes. The Daily Mail epitomises this model. Publish early, publish often. Sensational headlines. Celebrities. Pictures. Drive up traffic. Quality is not important. Employ some of the thousands of media and English graduates, who are cheap and desperate for jobs.

The DM site has become one of the most visited news sites in the world. I heard recently at a conference that online revenues from its ads offset losses from its print version.
 

E.L.Strict

Cerebral Houdini
Staff
Jun 27, 2004
5,638
1,509
Very nice read, my eyes were hurting a little by the time I reached the bottom so I've taken the liberty of adding some paragraphs, hope that's okay.

I think this is an interesting time for the media. Not long ago it was only a very exclusive group who were able to provide news to large numbers of people. Now almost anybody has the ability to do this, and they can make money from it.

There is no more buying a morning paper and then on the way back from work buying an evening paper; people want news 24 hours a day, and if they can't get it from you they will get it from someone else.

This is the sad part because the NEED to report is so massive but not enough interesting things are actually happening. Coverage of the few interesting things is lacking because time is so scarce.

If Bale does indeed sign a new contract I don't expect the story to change. We will probably have to read about how the deal includes a release clause, or Spanish lessons etc. And it won't stop until he does actually leave.

In my opinion Arsenal have nailed it with the Suarez offer. I find it really hard to believe it is anything other than a pr exercise by the board to appease the fans and occupy the media with the portrayal of an ambitious Arsenal for long enough that they can sell Koscielny or Cazorla on the last day of the window and have achieved their objective of selling all their good players and lying to the fans.
 

SlunkSoma

Like dogs bright
Oct 5, 2004
3,941
3,490
It is hard for the media, but I don't pity them. All that has changed is that now days there are more sources that can contradict their stories. Artistic license, particularly in Murdoch's empire was rife - that is now under more scrutiny.

I analyse and deal with the media for a living, they all have their won agenda and spin, for political or financial gain. The 'truth' is only relevant when it fits that agenda.
 

mil1lion

This is the place to be
May 7, 2004
42,333
77,592
It shocks me that an organisation who hired someone like Jimmy Saville would become so untrustworthy with football transfers.
 

Chris_D

Well-Known Member
Feb 24, 2007
2,652
1,278
The media wants a "story", any story will do. "Bale moves to Madrid for record fee" sells more papers than "player decides to continue to develop his game with existing coach". I want him to stay but that's because I love Tottenham and he's far and away our best player. What would I have done at his age with his talent though? Honestly, I'd probably have picked Real. When I was his age that wasn't a problem I had but I hope he stays.
 

Third Kit '87

Well-Known Member
Aug 14, 2012
307
955
100% agree with this! Echoes exactly what I was thinking when reading the BBC 'story' regarding Bale and him 'wanting to speak to Madrid' despite the lack of any substantiating evidence I.e- actual quotes!! Represents an unsound and worrying move toward tabloid-style rumour-mongering from BBC and indicative of the modern media with idiotic Twitter self-promoters and SSN relentlessly obsessing over their yellow update bar being changed every half hour in spite the absence of any actual 'news' in the traditional sense of the word. It bares absolutely ZERO correlation to what's going on the real world- just read GreyFox's latest ITK for a reasoned analysis of how the practical realities of this idle speculation are way, way, way off the mark. It's all about creating a stir and getting hits on the websites- why the hell else would anyone employ the likes of Adrian Durham?? As a football fan who wants to keep tabs on what's ACTUALLY happening (I.e- real transfer news as opposed to tabloid gossip) it's incredibly frustrating to be subjected to such awful standards of journalism and I do worry that it genuinely unsettles some players...hopefully Bale is well-grounded and wise enough to keep level-headed and ignore it all...
 

double0

Well-Known Member
Aug 29, 2006
14,423
12,258
The BBC should not enter the black hole of media speculation they should just report the facts. The tax paying public have/demand the right for impartial fact base reporting.

anything other than the fact from the BBC we should demand our TV licence fee back with interest.
 

vigospur

Well-Known Member
Dec 10, 2006
1,115
807
No agitation here dude. Just long held the view the media have lost their identity. This was just an opportunity to discuss it. Particularly when we only tend to here their side of things. The point about the media not understanding their user is quite relevant I think.
But the media identity is, and always has been, to give readers what they like.
People love these trash stories. Just look at the number of threads they trigger on here.
You may eventually get a paper prepared to say that they are only ever going to publish fully authenticated football stories but it would be suicide.
 

Nocando

Well-Known Member
Mar 11, 2012
2,945
4,385
But the media identity is, and always has been, to give readers what they like.
People love these trash stories. Just look at the number of threads they trigger on here.
You may eventually get a paper prepared to say that they are only ever going to publish fully authenticated football stories but it would be suicide.

But thats the point of the article, to challenge the outdated methods that no longer work (sales plummeting) and instead look to embrace things like twitter and give the reader a little more credit. Gone are the days where they dictate a message. However theres an interesting point made above about the daily mail.
 

Don_Felipe

Well-Known Member
Feb 8, 2004
2,294
3,918
Not sure there are many parts of the media that have as many dubious 'facts' as football transfer reporting, but it suits everyone..

Clubs want fans to think they´ll sign big players to sell season tickets etc.

Players want clubs to think there´s more interest in them than there really is so they can negotiate better contracts

Media outlets - online/print/broadcast want to sell copies/advertising

Us - want the gossip - we're on this site aren't we?

We should just ignore it all and see what players are on the pitch against Palace (or after the window) - that's the only thing that matters, but here we are lapping it up....
 
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