Drunks, Bugs, and Rain : So What's New?

With nothing better to do than to watch BBC News 24, I begin to wonder how far the advent of 24 hour news channels has affected what we see as "news". The question emerges from the dominant news item of the day - the threat of a nasty storm. Endless weather forecasters pore over endless weather maps as clouds are tracked like incoming waves of enemy aircraft. I, like most other people, scan the horizon, with all the obsessive attention of a racing-pigeon owner, looking for the first black, ugly cloud (as you can see from the image, at 11.45 this morning, it still had not arrived). But isn't this merely climatic naval-gazing? Have we always been so obsessed by the daily vagaries of the weather?

The way to test out the theory is to look back at what was seen as news in the days when it was delivered almost exclusively via newsprint. My favourite site of the moment - NewspaperARCHIVE.com - provides a way of carrying out the experiment. I chose the Fitchburg Sentinel of the 11th March 1955 for the purposes of this experiment. This wasn't exactly a random choice - it was merely that I could get free access to the front page via their "Today in History" feature.

In examining the news items which populated the front page of the paper we are not so much interested in the content of the story as in the type of story. My thesis is back in 1955, news was real news and not the mamby-pamby stuff which is churned out by the news channels nowadays. My thesis also states that there will be little mention of the bloody weather, hospital infections, or binge drinking. Well, here is my analysis of the front page:

Story : "Local Protesting Delegation Requests Depot Spa Probe At License Hearing" So with the main article my thesis takes a direct hit as a group of church ministers attempt to tighten the licensing laws and condemn the presence of "drunks in doorways"

Story : "Sir Alexander Fleming, 73, Discoverer Of Penicillin, Dies; Called Achievement 'Luck'" Another mortal blow comes with the second story which is concerned with the fight against hospital infections. The one thing that can be said is that back in 1955 we thought we had infection beat. If only we had known.

Story : "Pittsburgh District Lashed By Winds : N.E. May Be Hard Hit" The thesis looks terminal by now. The article talks about the unusually "viscous storm" and whilst they don't use the phrase "global warming" you can almost get the impression that they are about to invent the concept.

Story : "Ohio River To Crest 9 feet Above Flood Stage" By now I have not only abandoned my thesis but also decided, in future, to leave such speculation to university dons.

So, perhaps things have not changed all that much after all. Plus ca change ... and all that. Having abandoned my academic research I settle down and read the rest of the Fitchburg Sentinel. There's a very interesting article about the dangers of an over-inflated, speculation-driven stock market and warning that America is heading towards financial troubles. Now, where have I heard that before?

Cholera Outbreak in Brighouse Follows Devastating Earthquake

My apologies to all those people who have been trying to contact me to see whether I survived last night's earthquake. As you can clearly see, I did. I have been a little busy today making right the earthquake damage and attempting to submit my own personal experience of the quake to the interactive news media.

The damage resulting from what one newspaper described as a "super-quake" was significant. In the excitement of the event I sat on my glasses. Thus, this morning I had to take a trip to the opticians for repairs. Expecting a large queue of fellow-citizens who had equally suffered such collateral damage, I was agreeably surprised when the opthaltromologist (or whatever they are called these days) agreed to see me almost immediately and fit me with a new set of frames (wholesale price £4.99p) for just £30. It is heartening they way communities pull together at times of crisis.

Watching the news reports of the disaster - with the help of my good-as-new-glasses - I was disappointed with the low-key and unambitious nature of the viewer-feedback. Such e-mails, text messages and photos are now such a part of the news culture that one expected more. The BBC claimed that they had received a text from a man in Barnsley which said "Earthquake in Barnsley" which makes you glad you paid your license fee on time. The only footage they could manage was taken from a petrol station security camera which - according to them - showed the trees shaking. Oh come on, we can do better than this. So this morning, Amy and I went out and snapped this view of Fixby Road in the aftermath of the quake.

Equally I have texted the following message to both the BBC and ITV :

Quake thru wife + me out of bed + dmolished house. cholera outbreak in Brighouse following mass dstruction. need lp fast from red x

Not sure if they will broadcast it on the evening news. We will have to wait and see.