BBC Bias & the Daily Mail - Become the Media? There are moves afoot by a number of interested parties to create well distributed alternatives to the mainstream media (what Alex Salmond calls the metropolitan media). One recent initiative to create a new TV station easily passed its initial funding round via kickstarter, thanks to the generosity of the ongoing Yes campaign. This morning, listening to the Lesley Riddoch podcast on my way to work I was fascinated to hear Lesley and her husband Chris Smith discuss the way forward, and Lesley revealed that in her email in-box this morning were three ideas from people looking to set up their own newspapers. It seems like there is a real feeling amongst the supporters of independence that the mainstream/metropolitan media (MMM) really let us down in the run up to the referendum. I happened to be in Glasgow (meeting my mother in law!) when the last march against the BBC took place, the weekend before the vote I think it was. Spontaneously, I joined in. Someone made an excellent video that echoes my experience of the day. youtu.be/g9Mqvn9ywIA?list=UUSgsyRXtAHrS3gGW3s05Jxw A few thousands of us marched noisily through the streets, and gathered in defiance beneath the monstrous glass box that is the BBC headquarters. We looked up and sang songs of freedom as the shadowy figures of the Sunday skeleton staff within peered curiously out at us. Later on twitter I saw a picture taken by one of those skeletons. We made quite an impressive site, gathered outside his front door like that, even from six floors up. For weeks now Ive been buying the Sunday Herald, which to all intents and purposes is the Yes newspaper - left leaning, pro indy. What more could we ask for? The proof of the pudding being that their circulation has doubled, to the point where in my local newsagent on a Sunday just before lunch time there are fewer copies left of the Herald than any of the others. That gives me a warm glow. So, thats my interaction and connection with MMM - protest against its failings, and consume the good stuff if its there. On the other hand, theres my Dad, who is 77 years old. As a young man he had the distinction of beating John Smith (later the leader of the Labour party) in an election at Dunoon Grammar School. Yes, my Dad is a Tory. Always has been, probably always will be. He doesn’t get a daily newspaper, largely because he lives out in the boondocks where getting the newspaper requires logistical planning involving other elderly neighbours and a 10 mile round trip to the nearest shop. But once a week he (or one of the neighbours) does the newspaper run, bringing home The Sunday Telegraph and The Sunday Times. I know, but it could be worse! My dad, despite being a Tory, can occasionally be a reasonable man, but as he gets older such lapses become less frequent. I think he thinks The Sunday Telegraph and The Sunday Times represent the broad swathe of normalised thinking on any and all subjects. He will often repeat dubious things he has read there as if they are incontestable facts. Of course, he and my Mum watch the BBC and Sky. ITV is considered to be a left wing plot to bring down the Empire, and Channel 4 might as well be broadcast straight from Beijing or Havana as far as my folks are concerned. The big question for the indy movement is how do we reach people like my parents - dyed in the wool absolute Unionists? How can we change their minds away from what looks to us like a kind of institutionalised lack of courage and imagination? When my Dad and I discussed the subject of Scottish independence, he dutifully reproduced all the angles the BBC, Sky, The Telegraph and The Times had laid out for him. Currency confusion. Risk to his pension. Border guards at Carlisle. Doubts over European membership. The NATO non-nuclear paradox. The oil running out. That nasty Alex Salmond. And so on and so on. You can imagine the arguments I used to refute all of those points, but it didnt matter what logic I used. My Dad was not going to be having any of it from me, his rebellious offspring. And slowly it dawned on me that if the older generation are the key to this, then perhaps the last people that should be attempting to persuade them are their children and grandchildren. Why would old wise heads listen to the impetuous young? Isnt it supposed to be the other way around? Isnt that why we have a House of Lords? (OK, before you crucify me on that comment, Im being ironic. There really is no good reason for having a House of Lords. Or Lords for that matter.) So, if we young folks cannot breach the encrusted defences of our elders, who can? This is where the alternative to the MMM comes in. The logic goes that if Unionists in general (not just the elderly) get their news from the BBC and the newspapers, and the BBC and the newspapers are owned by union friendly vested interests, then we in the indy campaign should create newspapers and telly friendly to our cause. The logic extends to the point where having indy friendly alternatives would help to dissolve the idea that there is an unopposed consensus that Scottish independence is a dangerous and crazy idea only supported by the FaceBook and twitter generation. But that is really as far as the logic can take us, well me at least. I dont believe that my dad or others of his ilk would ever read an indy friendly newspaper or watch an indy funded TV station, regardless of how ubiquitous its presence on his Sky box. My dad will always be able to find solace for his world view in the Times and the Telegraph, the BBC and Sky, regardless of how many alternatives there might be. Which is sad really, because as time goes on we are unlikely to have fewer elderly people. True, theres an obvious point of attrition amongst that demographic, but the resistance to independence extends all the way down to people in their fifties, and we cannot presume that every new generation coming up will be in favour of independence. To me, the problem looks like a matrix of dynamic and ever changing demographic attitudes nurtured by a self-interested media. If we create a press for us, its very likely only we will use it. I can see no point in that. It would take a huge amount of money, commitment and effort just to get it running, let alone keep it going and make it viable. The Sunday herald may be doing very well, but my dad aint reading it. If we seriously want to bring significant numbers of the other side over to our side we have to recognise and accept that we are currently in the minority. We will see what happens as time goes on, but we must not congratulate ourselves too much in rising from 35% to 45% and see that as a straight line that inevitably leads to a majority. Perhaps its the peak of a curve thats driven by the need for change, and the next arc on that curve heads down, not up. Yes, the media really is one of the major keys to this, and whilst theres a lot we can do with what we do own (social media, the Wee Blue Book et al), we need at least some part of the media to be on our side, and I dont think creating an alternative is the way to do it. We already have the Sunday herald. Lets see that newspaper become the biggest Sunday broadsheet in the UK. Id urge everyone to buy it, even if you dont like newspapers much! If the Herald becomes ludicrously successful that will create the kind of commercial pressure that many owners and investors would find it hard to ignore. But we must go further, and reach into the current MMM, and make our arguments directly there. Remember, there will always be people who think like the Daily Mail. Its a false premise to believe that the Daily Mail creates its readers. Its the other way around. We have to demonstrate by our maturity and inclusiveness that our ideas for how Scotland should be are not lunatic fringe ideas, but are soundly thought out and will benefit everyone. Look what happened when England belatedly woke up to what was going on - all at once the whole matter of constitutional reform for the whole UK was in minds that had barely ever contemplated the matter. We have to continue to demonstrate, continue to wave our flags. We should support the media that is balanced and/or friendly. But we shouldnt waste energy and resources trying to become the thing we oppose. We need to persuade it to our cause, however unlikely success there may seem. We arent going to kill the media as it exists today. Like it or not, it represents people who think the way it does. But if we seek to create a Scotland that we can all get behind then we need to change the minds and hearts of everyone (including ourselves), and we can only do that if we accept all of us for what we are and listen as well as we persuade with conviction, respect and calm reason. We mustn’t be 45% hoping to convert 6% of the 55%, we need to be all of us working together - 100% confirmed in our shared vision.
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 19:15:52 +0000