“The pace of domestic news traditionally slows down in August; it was first called the 'silly season' because daft stories stood a chance of getting into print.” Simon Ford BBC College of Journalism
Today the media have full attention on ONE woman. Has she done something that mankind have to debate and be informed on? Actually no. She was cruel to a neighbours cat. The cat was recovered 15hrs later unharmed. The moral debate has pushed this seemly private issue to headline news and the top story on broadcast news. Is it a conversation point? YES. Is it news? NO. So why is this on the news? It's the silly season.
The silly season is the period lasting for a few summer months typified by the emergence of frivolous news stories in the media. Typically, the latter half of the summer is slow in terms of newsworthy events. Parliament is closed so no home grown political stories, most northern hemisphere political bodies are closed in August... in fact every one who normally generates something news worthy have grabbed their nearest dearest and sprogs and taken off to a beach , mountain or lake somewhere. And don't think for a moment they can fall back on Sport... no action their either as the stars of field and track take their summer breaks.
This poses a bit of a problem for the scribes who have to bring us news. Newspaper, TV and Radio news is not a free service! It is paid for by an income that is generated by advertisements and advertisements rely on audiences! So how on earth do they keep the audience when they have nothing of any substance to tell them... easy... attention grabbing headlines, articles and reports to do with minor moral panics, animal stories, surveys, and endless speculation on possible team changes, transfers, and débuts of any star involved with sport.
Examples of this kind of headline include:
COWS MOO IN REGIONAL ACCENTS
Daily Mail: cows in Somerset have west country twangs in their moo's, similar regional phenomenon found with geordie twangs in Tyne and Wear cattle, brummie twangs in the Midlands herds and estuary english in cows Down South.
A slew of experts from Universities and Animal Research Trusts were brought in to substantiate the claims.WOMEN LOVE MEN WHO WEAR RED SHIRTS
The Independent: It has been found that when a man wheres a red shirt he will be views by women as powerful, attractive and sexually desirable. Women are unaware of this effect which was proven to be limited to status and romance.
This time international experts brought in for supporting quotes.EQUICANIGATTUS IS BRITAINS PERFECT PET
The Guardian: 2000 British Pet Lovers revealed the nations perfect animal should be 49% dog, 35% cat 9% horse and 7% rabbit so a pet insurance company commissioned a portrait of the animal and called it Max. Meanwhile scientists gave it's latin name Equicanigattus.
No really... the scientist even worked out this animal will have high energy levels, love daily walks and sleeps for an average of 9hrs 27 mins per dayHIGH STREET CLOTHES TOO SEXY FOR KIDS
The Telegraph: Outcry at the loss of innocence of "our kids" .A bikini for girls aged 7 went for sale in branches of Primark and was made of pink sparkly material and had padded cups. Next selling a tee-shirt for girls with the slogan “Too many Boys not enough Time” across the chest. Tesco's selling a Pole Dancing Kit for kids called “Peekaboo”.
Campaigners quoted as claiming the household high street names are exploiting kids to attract the paedophile pound.
Of course... we have all gone mad. These stories are not news. But we lap them up as if they were. They are at best a minor moral dilemma (Fact: PARENTS buy the children's clothes not the local paedophile - the high street shops it's up to the parents to decide what is appropriate and THAT was the audience the shops were aiming at). They are at fast moderately entertaining surveys (Fact: Women like the colour red and do associate it with strength but would prefer to have a man appropriately dressed for the occasion and his complexion than turn up looking like a pillar box). They are at worst total fiction (Fact: No one has ever met anyone who has ever taken part in a survey of what they nations prefers).
The media stick to their guns though... the silly season is on, there is NO NEWS and they need to keep an audience. After all no harm done it's all a bit of fun. Anyway it's a nice change from all those hard headline they run all year and anyway THERE IS NO NEWS IN THE SUMMER MONTHS.
Really?
Well lets see... if that was applied firmly what would we have missed in say the last 100 years?
Everyone is on holiday nothing to report say the media. If that was a firm fact we might have missed the 32 bands that turned up at farm one weekend in August 1969. Woodstock Festival gave birth to to summer tradition of wellies and music we all enjoy today. So glad SOMEONE bothered to run the story!
Talking about August, the media say that politically nothing happens then so they can't run stories even if they wanted to. REALLY?We declared war on Germany August 3rd 1914. WWI was a bit of news I think. OH they marched into Poland in August 1939. WW2 was also a bit newsworthy. We sent troops to Northern Ireland in August 1969. The Irish conflict filled 40 years of news media. Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990. Gulf War I turned out to be a bit of a media event. Seems the Gods of War don't Thomas Cook it.
The media say the big summer celebrity stories are not around in summer. REALLY? Forget the death of the British version of the TV show Big Brother proper global celebrities shuffle off in the summer months... Michael Jackson (25 June 2009) Diana Princess of Wales (31 August 1997) Elvis Presley (16 August 1977) Marilyn Monroe (5 August 1962). Rather more disconcerting is the death of the man who is responsible for the current take on celebrity the guy who launched the Hello! Magazine empire publisher Eduardo Sanchez Junco died on 14 July 2010... when we were all more interested in the accents of moo cows.
The media don't want to resort to just talking about the weather . I 'm glad it is not a hard an d fast rule as there are quite a few stories that go beyond the annual “PHEW WOT A SCORCHER” type... Hurricane Katrina (the piece of weather that blew away the veil that hid America's impoverished underbelly to the world) hit 29 August 2005. Britain suffered terrible floods (and that man who always is out in an orange canoe)in August 2004 – which pales into insignificance when we think of the summer 2010 floods in Pakistan. But it is not all bad - who can forget that lovely summers day in 1999 when the South East of the UK had a proper black out eclipse of the sun.
I love the silly stories. The human interest bit at the news always used to make me smile. In fact the only reason why I'd make it through an entire news broadcast was to see the skateboarding duck story at the end. But now it seems every summer the top of the broadcast news IS the skateboarding duck. The front page of the newspaper is the skateboarding duck. The current affairs discussion is the skateboarding duck. And that worries me. Stuff really DOES happen in the summer months and some of that stuff is the stuff that will shape our futures . Maybe we should be increasing our knowledge of those?
Or are we all (as the media tell us we are) enjoying the break and are happy to wait till September?
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