[Media-watch] hello

Wed Jan 22 22:03:51 GMT 2003

Dear John/all,

Others who can do bits of research (the odd hour here and there is useful)
are welcome.

Transcripts of TV news are difficult to get.  They need to be transcribed
from VHS.  Often the whole thing will not be needed though.  The same is tru
of radio, but it is often the case now that you can download (and record the
sound) of both radio and TV programmes from the relevant broadcasting
website.  Radio Four and Radio Scotland is good for this (www.bbc.co.uk).
Also the ITN archive website (www.itnarchive.co.uk) does index ITN, C4 and
C5 bulletins.  This shows what was covered, who was interviewed and how long
the item was, but does not have transcripts.  There is no substitute for
taping the news.  At Stirling we are now taping all the evening bulletins on
BBC1, 2, ITV, C4 and C5, plus Scotland Today and Reporting Scotland.  These
will be available as back up, but the best thing is to record stuff
yourself.

The most important thing is to keep a record of what you see and hear so
that it can be referred back to if necessary.  It is crucial that criticism
of the media is well informed and *factually based* and we need the evidence
for that.

In the first instance we could do with SOME VOLUNTEERS to look up coverage
of the Mugdock story and the Edinburgh story.  ANY TAKERS?  I am happy to
advise on what to look for.

Best

David

> From: John Rooney <john.rooney at zen.co.uk>
> Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 21:29:24 -0000
> To: David Miller <david.miller at stir.ac.uk>
> Subject: Re: [Media-watch] hello
> 
> Hi David 
> 
> Good to see something kicking off. Thanks.
> 
> My setup is I have access to VCR and internet. I was talking to
> a colleague of mine at work and mentioned the activity you
> are kicking off. He is very interested and has a couple of
> friends also interested. He studied politics and philosophy.
> Is it okay if I email him your address so they can get  involved.
> 
> I need to work out a schedule for how much time I can
> grab per week. I don't get a regular news paper but am
> interested in being able to see transcripts of news. I will
> email the group my comments on Monday nights C4
> news report on Finsbury mosque. A fine exercise in
> propaganda. Do you know of a location I can find the
> C4 transcripts ? 
> 
> Thanks 
> 
> 
> 
> On Monday, January 20, 2003, at 07:54  pm, David Miller wrote:
> 
> 
>> Dear all, 
>> 
>> 
>> thanks for signing up to get involved in monitoring media and
>> propaganda in 
>> the attempt to build up to war.
>> 
>> The first thing to note about this list is that if you hit the reply
>> button 
>> the reply will go to the poster of the email, NOT to the list.  If you
>> want 
>> to post to the list so that we can all see it make sure you email
>> media-watch at lists.stir.ac.uk.
>> 
>> I guess the first thing to work out is what kind of facilities
>> everyone has 
>> and what kinds of things you are willing to do.
>> 
>> At Stirling we have facilities for recording TV and radio news, but it
>> would 
>> be useful if others on this list could also help with recording the
>> news 
>> since recordings can fail.  Most important in this respect is for
>> people to 
>> take responsibility for actually watching and listening to TV and
>> radio news 
>> and reading the papers.  It would be useful if you could all indicate
>> if you 
>> have any facilities to record radio or TV news and if there are
>> particular 
>> programmes that you can monitor.  We probably need to monitor
>> Reporting 
>> Scotland and Scotland Today as well as Good Morning Scotland,
>> Newsnight 
>> Scotland etc (as well as other Scottish programmes possibly). The
>> network 
>> news is obviously also important.
>> 
>> On the press, it would be useful to know if people have easy access to
>> the 
>> internet or can monitor particular paper every day.  Also it would be
>> useful 
>> to know if anyone has access (through a university library for
>> example) to 
>> lexis nexis (the press database).  If not we can probably arrange
>> access. 
>> 
>> On specifics:  The following stories are obviously important from a
>> Scottish 
>> perspective: 
>> 
>> Mugdock 
>> The case of the Edinburgh arrests.
>> 
>> It would be good if a couple of people each could start building up
>> information on these cases.
>> 
>> Also important are the other 'terror' arrests in the UK, particularly
>> the 
>> 'Ricin' case.  Reading the sunday Herald at the weekend I was struck
>> by the 
>> reasonable editorial line and how that contrasted with the front page
>> coverage of the 'threat' - all sourced with the police.
>> 
>> If people have other stories that they think could/should be followed
>> up, by 
>> all means suggest them.
>> 
>> That's all for now.
>> 
>> Remember to reply to the list unless you want to email me direct.
>> 
>> Let's try and produce something to undermine the propaganda...
>> 
>> Best wishes 
>> 
>> David 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
> John Rooney 
> 