File spoon-archives/anarchy-list.archive/anarchy-list_2001/anarchy-list.0109, message 366


Date: 30 Sep 2001 17:46:00 +0200
From: ASWAD-AT-anarch.free.de (catkawin)
Subject: Re: lack of international news



Thanks for the feedback received - it's good to know the mails are read  
and it's just not work for the waste-paper basket, resp the delete  
button;)))

Apparently the media situation here is very different (although this has  
changed over the years with the intro of private TV channels, as one  
example). State-owned TV stations here were founded -after WW 2 - with the  
explicit aim of educating the population, and although this tends to get  
less now that we have well-established private channels, they cannot and  
may not avoid this altogether. Interesting stuff often gets broadcast  
late, so in order to be well-informed, they make you stay up late, but  
when one's unemployed, this is not so difficult.

But there's still several political magazines on state TV produced  
regularly, or magazines concentrating on 'abroad', i.e. regular reports  
from countries around the world, one for each of the channels. - We got  
two large nation-wide state-owned channels, and then regional 3rd  
programmes which are meant to cover 'minority' issues. Then there's  
channel '3sat' which basically is a cooperation of German 2nd channel and  
Swiss and Austrian state TV, so we get their news shows and foreign news  
magazines, too.

I only rarely watch news shows on private channels, because they tend to  
follow the recipe of what is called 'humyn interest' over here, i.e. less  
info, but 'infotainment'. More or less what the chase for ad dollars made  
of US TC news, I suppose, since they also rely on advertisement for funds.

Cable TV is nothing but a big swizz basically - lots of private channels,  
with an occasional highlight as BBC World or EuroNews in between. That's  
the good news. Bad news: BBC World and EuroNews now have to share channels  
with others, and this means you can pick up BBC only until 10 p.m., and  
EuroNews is replaced by some eMpTyVee imitation after 10 p.m. ...  
Unfortunately, this means that when you receive the cable version of  
EuroNews, you pick up less international news, as they used to show and  
translate entire news shows from participating countries (all European  
state channels plus several from Northern Africa and Middle East) during  
late hours that provided a lot of interesting stuff before.

In comparison, CNN is often less informative than BBC or German state TV,  
in some cases even on US issues... The time difference doesn't help all  
that much, either, so to watch something on CNN which comes up for prime  
news time in the evening, we have to stay up until 2 or 3 in the bleeding  
morning.

The largest city papers are usually read regionally or even nation-wide of  
course of different political orientation. There is of course still in- 
famous BILD around, a tabloid of the worst kind, renowned for its stout  
anti-communism and head-off conservatism, which sells millions of copies  
every day. As you might have imagined, I never buy it. On 'normal' days, I  
mostly buy a local paper (which sells in all Northern regions, too) which  
was in Social Democrat ownership up to the 80ies but has been sold since,  
and another one irregularly (it costs a fortune to buy it every day) which  
is called 'taz' and began as an alternative project in 1981 and has left  
tendencies.

catkawin





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