The World Beyond Our Shores

Royal Gazette Opinion, Saturday 16 July 2005

Last Friday, the Royal Gazette did an unusual thing. It put a foreign news story on the front page.

The story, of course, was the terrorist attack in London, in which at least 52 people died and more than 700 were injured. It came on the same day that Bermuda’s national cricket team qualified for the World Cup for the first time in their history. But only the Royal Gazette seemed to acknowledge the seriousness of the bombings, giving the two stories equal prominence on its front page.

In the Mid Ocean News, the cricket and the water shortage pushed the bombings to the bottom of the front page (continued in a short column on page eight). In the Bermuda Sun, apart from a brief mention on page one and a tiny slot in the news-in-brief section on page two (with the same prominence as a snippet about Portugal winning a prize for issuing the best stamps for the 2004 Olympics), coverage was relegated to page five.

In the absence of such a major story, however, foreign news rarely makes it to the front page at all. The Royal Gazette does have a good international section, but you sometimes have to go as far as page 15 to find it. All three newspapers consider local news to be their primary franchise: partly because it’s unavailable anywhere else, partly because of a lack of resources, and partly because that’s what interests us most.

It wasn’t always like this. Until the mid-1970s the front page of the Royal Gazette mixed local and foreign stories. Since then, the space allotted to foreign news has gradually shrunk. A few years ago, the Mid Ocean News offered a 16-page tabloid supplement that provided a weekly summary of international news. It was dropped due to a lack of interest from advertisers.

Radio is much the same. The fifteen-minute local bulletins on Mix 106 FM have a couple of minutes of CNN headline news at the end, but that’s little more than one sentence coverage of domestic US stories. For in-depth international news you have to tune to the BBC World Service on the AM band – and put up with the awful sound.

Television also separates local and foreign news. For local, switch to ZBM or VSB at 7pm. For the US, try the American broadcasts that follow. Caribbean news can be found on ZBM at 8.30pm. For a more global perspective, there’s BBC World.

In the UK, avoiding international news requires effort. Television and radio bulletins and the front pages of the newspapers mix domestic and foreign stories. For example, a couple of weeks ago the UK’s Guardian newspaper had front page stories on the implications of the US Supreme Court’s ruling against the producers of file-sharing software, and the news that one in six countries face food shortages this year.

Both approaches have their merits. In Bermuda, the partitioning of the news means it’s easier to just get the stories you’re interested in. On the face of it, that’s a good thing. Why should someone who is uninterested in, say, European news be forced to sit through it on the evening newscast?

However, it’s also easier to remain ignorant about what’s going on in the rest of the world. Perhaps that’s why Bermuda can sometimes feel a little parochial. If you want to hear international news you have to actively seek it out.

Choice is the way of the future, however. We want to decide what news we get, when we get it, and in what format. It’s something the traditional media are only just getting to grips with.

For example, newspapers give me information I’m not interested in (sport, classified ads) in a format that’s not suited to my lifestyle (I drive to and from work and can’t read in the car). Radio doesn’t give me what I want (a single bulletin mixing local and foreign news) at the time I want it (when I start my drive to or from work). Television doesn’t work for me because I rarely have the time to sit down and watch it.

The internet is changing this. It’s already easy to use a computer program called a “news aggregator” to automatically pull stories from websites you like into a single location on your computer.

Now podcasting is taking this one stage further, allowing you to download audio files. These can be played on your computer or transferred to a digital music player, enabling you to listen at a time and place of your choosing. I’m already downloading podcasts of BBC radio news programmes and listening to them in the car on my way to and from work. If ZBM or VSB were to make their bulletins available as podcasts too, I’d be all set.

Keeping abreast of international news is easier than it has ever been. The difficulty is persuading people to take an interest.

Comments

[The Limey on 16.07.05 at 11:07]

I had an email from someone this morning suggesting that I make my Royal Gazette columns available as podcasts.

Would anyone else find this useful?

[sal on 16.07.05 at 11:20]

Podcasts would be a welcome improvement to the local media.

[Terry on 16.07.05 at 13:05]

Mr. Limey, your last paragraph makes more sense than the preceedind ones.

It's a Global trait. Some people don't have Shores to go too, or even look across or over, or beyond.

Hell, a lot are not interested as to what goes on outside 'their windows'. Local news and keeping people up too date is great. Outside occurances and things that may affect their livelyhood should be presentd to. Everyday happenings affect us all. Thanks for reminding us. Television, to me, is in your face and there are sooo many differant news channels.

When people pick up a paper as to say, thats more in your face. It may be the only avenue you have to have knowledge of what is going on around you and next door or over there or somewhere.

Arrivederci.

[Cancundreaming on 16.07.05 at 16:44]

One of RG’s foremost responsibilities’ is to investigate issues, policies, situations that aren’t in the public domain. You touched on this point in your post, but the point that ‘you can’t get it anywhere else’ is a fairly big point, bigger then I think you give it credit for. RG’s must continue to shine the light on the dark places across our island, both in the government, civil service, police force, private sector, political parties etc.. And It’s not just to keep the public informed, at times it’s to change the face of the debate. They say that newspapers are powerful force because they tell people what to think, I don’t that’s right, but I think their power lies in their ability not to tell people what to think, rather the power to tell people what to think about. That’s an important role RG serves in our society and I think they must continue to do that, even to the detriment of international news, especially because there are so many other avenues to get that information.

[Cancundreaming on 16.07.05 at 16:57]

Although i agree with your point that Bermuda can seem a bit parochial, i think the broader point asks ourselves to what extent will international knowledge assist in critiquing our own government, making decisions at the polls or understating, supporting or opposing certain public policies. I think there is an important connection. To what extent, I’m not sure, and i don't think when RG does focus on international news, they look at the type of news that would be relevant to our community, the local, or even state or provincial issues and policies that would perhaps assist us in understanding ourselves or our own policies.

(i.e., considering the amount of attention that the Iraq war had received and will receive, I’m not sure how relevant it is for the RG to publish wire articles on the war, unless it involves Bermudians specifically. To me articles such as how other islands or small communities handles their water supply and/or their electricity redundancy system(if any) would be more relevant to our community. (just use two recent issues)

[Terry on 17.07.05 at 14:16]

Cancundreaming, I read you post and found it most interesting. Not being the prolific and 'up to date' individual that you are, I must disagree. What happens elsewhere effects us all.
Since we don't have a Squad, Company, over there in Iraq, does does not mean that we should not be interested, nor put it on the back burner because We are not there.

The Oil Fires and bombings effected the World. Acid Rain, pollutants, runoffs, major desecration of fisheries, waterways etc. played a part.

When it rains, it does not neccessarily pour. BUt when it does, we should pray that it's halfway decent rain.

Current affairs is what keeps us all going.

Lets look and live outside the box.

In many countries, even today they don't know what a light bulb is. They may have seen one in the distance and thought, 'Have the Gods gone Crazy'.

If you can afford to print a paper in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean you sure can keep people abreast of whats going on in sometimes 'Shark infested waters' and how to avoid them..........

[Cancundreaming on 17.07.05 at 15:15]

Terry, you always seem to catch my posts, but more often then not you misunderstand my point.

I did not say we shouldn't be interested in what's going on in Iraq (i merely used the Iraq war as an example) or international news, i think we should.

My point was | considering the level of news coverage the Iraq war receives by the numerous media outlets across the world. I questioned the relevancy of Bermuda's Royal Gazette in covering the story via wire articles. I suggested that they should perhaps focus on more international local, state or provincial news or polices that may assist us in understanding our own country or policies.

If you pick up any international paper, magazine, read a North American blog or personal website, or turn on any international news channel, you're likely to get your Iraq fill, not sure if it's important if RG puts their cherry on top. That was and is my point.

[Terry on 17.07.05 at 16:18]

Cancundreamimg, If you want to get your point/points across the get to the meat of the matter. This going back and forth is waisting my time and yours. You spend more time telling everyone how they missed your point, than directly getting to it.

Not being as weel educated as you and others, with no formal degree I am taken aback sometimes as to the response time it takes to get YOUR opinions. I talk from the heart and you as an example come up with all these statistics and irrevelant comments. I play the game.

My Local paper puts on the fron page whats relevent. Does it affect us, Whats going on.

If I want to read about some guy screwing some young boy in the Osarks, or West Virginia I will pull it up on the relevent site. I am not into that yet, and hope I never am/will be.

A lot of this has been taken out of context. Like I said, if I want to listen too and watch repetative news coverage of that Prick Novak, who should be shot, then listen to Lawyers who are paid 1+million a year to say words and phrases for Bush, then I need to get a life. I have one. It's simple, Fish, cook, clean, be there when I am needed, and I am always needed just like others.

My contract expires when the good Lord says so. Could be today but I will know that I have done my best and helped along the way to whomever and whatever.

The RG does not have to put cherries on top. If they do, and you consdider that it is, well fine.

In all the years I lived in Bermuda, the Gazette did not dictate to me how to run and live my life. I read and took each grain of salt accordingly.

I had an e.mail from one of the Posters the other day and they told me to keep up the worthless crap that I type because as stated the little sayings and contributions that I make, make some step aside for periods too long to think about how to degrade or make me feel like a wannabe.

I want to be heard just like the rest of the Posters.

Statistics, yea, 75% make a hell of a lot of sense. The others just want to be heard in the Boardroom and beyond.

Cancundreaming? I would rather be in Cape Cod 24/7, 365. Punta Del Gada, Slippery Hill St. George.

[Cancundreaming on 17.07.05 at 16:44]

Terry,
This is where you and i hit the fork in the road and go opposite ways. Respectfully and truthfully, some of your responses make me scratch my head and wonder if we're reading and writing the same language.

“If I want to read about some guy screwing some young boy in the Osarks, or West Virginia I will pull it up on the relevent site. I am not into that yet, and hope I never am/will be.”

1. I didn’t say anything about pedophilia, nor did I suggest that RG cover more pedophilia cases. If you look back, my suggestion it was in regards to water reclamation and electricity redundancy.

“I talk from the heart and you as an example come up with all these statistics”

2. I don’t remember once ever brining up statistics in any my posts. Certainly, it isn’t a habit of mine as you suggest.

“In all the years I lived in Bermuda, the Gazette did not dictate to me how to run and live my life.”

3. No one has suggested that RG dictated to people how to run their lives, at least I certainly haven’t.

4. And when I read the rest of your post you seem to have gone on a tangent and didn’t respond in any meaningful way to anything I said. Maybe you did, I don’t know, maybe it’s just me? Maybe I don’t have the smarts to figure it out. I don’t know

You know maybe I’m like a PC and you’re a Mac, or maybe it’s the other way around, either way, this has the same feeling as when you’re trying to open a mac word document in MS WORD. You just get gibberish, that’s how this feels when we’re trying to communicate, so maybe we should just stop trying to communicate with each other, cool?

[Point on 17.07.05 at 17:58]

Cancundreaming

You're not the only one who scratches their head when trying to decipher certain of Terry's postings. I sometimes think he has taken one too many hits off the skull bong while contemplating the tales of the kung-fu master.

[Rich on 17.07.05 at 18:09]

Personally, I'd like to see better coverage of local stories. My biggest criticism of the RG, for example, is that its reporters tend to editorialise in their coverage of events.

While podcasting may be the wave of the future, I will never let die the idea of physically holding a newssheet! I cringe everytime I hear the price of foreign newspapers here in Bermuda. Close to $5 for a Globe and Mail. Ouch. And how I miss my subscription to the Financial Times.

In other news, I'm as happy as a clam now that Bermuda has CBC - though I wish we'd get rid of BBC America and get the real thing. One can only dream ...

[Terry on 17.07.05 at 19:58]

Don't you guys/galls get it? I am bringing out the best/worst in you all. You only make some sense when you think your being confronted by some weed smokin/skull fractured Kung-fu master.
Welcome to your own wanna be world.

May the Royal Gizzard live on, you won't........

[The other Susan on 17.07.05 at 20:18]

Terry - and this is totally off topic for the rest of you - did you by any chance go to Whitney Institute way back when?

[The Other Terry on 17.07.05 at 20:41]

Sorry Susan...it wasn't me!

[desperado on 18.07.05 at 10:46]

"Don't you guys/galls get it? I am bringing out the best/worst in you all. You only make some sense when you think your being confronted by some weed smokin/skull fractured Kung-fu master ..."

I get it. And I'm always amused by your schtick, Terry. Seems some of those with long strings of letters after their names have had their funny bones surgically removed (along with their frontal lobes in some cases).

Desperado

[Terry on 18.07.05 at 11:46]

'The other Susan, in answer to your question, I was there for three months in the late 60's. I was then transfered and graduated from St. Brendans Middle School.

Still here............................

[The Limey on 20.07.05 at 13:54]

In another de-prioritisation of foreign news, the Bermuda Sun today decided to replace its page 2 "World Briefs" with more local news, and bury the World Briefs deeper inside the paper.

I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of the year they've completely disappeared.

[Terry on 20.07.05 at 14:35]

Mr. Limey. How long have you been in Bermuda?
Don't your friends in St. George bring you up to date?

It's a White conch stew, sorry, cunspiracy. If you keep people from seeing whats going on outside their borders, they will self destruct.

This leaves it open to re-colonisation, or re-constitution, or sumthin like that.
Keep them in the Dark, man can't you see....

Ya been hanging around those Dingy Club bouys too much. Those buoys in Great Head make good chowder, just food for thought.

Keep up the good work. It's bringing us more together than tearing us apart.

Oxford:- Limey= one who drank too much acid from fruitfull trees.

Secondary Explanation. One who took over Hog Heaven.

Man I love it when I can just sit back and SQUEESE..

Ps. Your Generator is on the way, my Genorator/ions is on the way out.

(.=.)