Friday, July 22  

The Media Contradiction

The Media Contradiction

Hello. Here in Australia we have a cricket player called Shane Warne. Shane is one of the greatest ever players of Australia's national game and, as such, is of high interest to many Australians.

With having such a high profile Shane was sought after as a media commentator. Indeed, he'd been groomed by one of the leading television networks for a future career as an expert cricket commentator.

And with his high profile Shane's going ons have been of great interest to the media for fodder in their newspaper, TV shows, magazines and more.

Shane Gets Into Trouble

Shane has a tendency to get noticed for all the wrong reasons - numerous affairs with women other than his wife, a suspension for accepting money from an Indian bookmaker and a 1 year ban for taking a prohibited drug. That's just a small % of it.

It's basically a never-ending circus for Shane.

The Contradiction

And here's the contradiction. The exploits of Shane are picked up and gleefully reported by the magazines, the newspapers, the TV shows. They make a fortune from reporting in minute detail all of Shane's behaviour.

And one of the biggest players at exploiting Shane's behaviour for profit is Channel 9, the same TV network that had Shane on a retainer.

And one of the major players in the magazine market is ACP. That's owned by the same guy who owns the network.

Shane Warne has just had his employment with Channel 9 terminated because his exploits haven't been in step with the standards of employees of the network.

The very same behaviour that they chase down, pay money to get information on and then gleefully report.

Doesn't seem right really.

Regards

Brendon