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Reluctant Hero · Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2007 6:42 pm Post subject: Salmond to demand Scottish Six

According to the Sunday Herald, Salmond is planning a summit with the BBC with the hope that this will eventually lead to control of broadcasting being devolved to Scotland.

A Scottish Six is long, long overdue in my opinion.

http://www.sundayherald.com/news/...dnews/display.var.1596619.0.0.php

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SLG · Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2007 7:07 pm Post subject:

I think there is a fairly wide consensus that broadcasting should be devolved. I hope party political factionism doesn't prevent it happening. It won't surprise me if this ends up leading to a 'fight' in the eyes of the press between Holyrood and Westminster though.

RadgeJougal · Our Scotland = 2nd Job! Joined: 15 May 2006 Posts: 978

Channel 6 Scotland would be better.

SLG · Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2007 7:50 pm Post subject:

There was talk of a dedicated BBC Scotland digital channel a wee while ago. I'm sure that will still be in Salmond's thoughts.

RadgeJougal · Our Scotland = 2nd Job! Joined: 15 May 2006 Posts: 978

it must be a MAJOR digital channel, not some minor one that you have to pay extra for.

kevin04 · Standing in a Council Ward Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 459

I'd love to see a Scottish Six at one point but I think the system at present is reasonably ok, you can turn onto Itv for Scottish News at 6pm if you don't want to see the UK news and then there is reporting scotland at 6.30pm as well.

I'd prefer to see the SNP putting through the legislation for council tax first than the scottish six idea and I believe most Scots would as well,

RadgeJougal · Our Scotland = 2nd Job! Joined: 15 May 2006 Posts: 978

SouthernJock · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 12:57 am Post subject:

skip · Helping with the Count Joined: 19 May 2006 Posts: 257

i think all journalists, reporters, producers, and media people involved should welcome this.

for one thing the boundaries are too rigid under the current set up. eg. brian taylor can talk about the PM visiting scotland or reaction to scotland...but he is not seen to analyse the PM's visit to america or wider issue of iraq or environment unless he can give a scottish slant to it. IMO we should be using network footage of the PM's overseas visits and allowing our political editor to commentate on it instead of nick robinson (or other). there should be nothing to stop our man talking about the usa elections or european constitution if there are the world news events of the day.

our business correspendent should be able to comment on the markets... or legal battles eg apple v microsoft, or youtube and copyrights issues, takeovers, mergers etc.... this would widen his brief from factory closures or job creation announcements and shipbuilding contracts.

you get the idea though... that we should be told the news in our own accent by people who can relate it to our lives and how it affects us. they should allocate as much or as little time they see fit.

if our own newsrooms can select the order of the stories... and analyse them.. and cover world and local affairs then they can do everything that the job throws at them. how are they to develop their own knowledge, interview techniques and so on if they are restricted to vox pops and minor stories. there should be nothing to stop a bbc scotland or stv newhounds from investigating anything - anywhere, if need be.

just now we have a 'white city' question whereby scottish tv newsreaders can't really report on everything they wish to report on while those who work in bbc HQ can be reading news on anything big or trivial. is there a celeb-drain with news as well?? you get hazel irvine, kirsty young, david tanner and perhaps producers and cutting room people leaving scotland to be involved in more challenging productions elsewhere.

you can sometimes find situations where our own newspeople who know the story inside out and have contacts up here are gazumped when the story becomes a uk national story - and a 'scotland correspendent' is sent up to deliver the piece to camera for the uk audience.

relevance and order of the news items needs looked at too - eng & wales crime stats are not of interest to me. that english cricket is not universally popular either as a news item. that scots would rather have 5 minutes on the scottish rugby team first... and then a little round up of the other six nations games - as opposed to being an add-on to how the english team did. that the smoking ban coverage was unequal for england, wales, scotland and northern ireland.

then there's things that are neglected - when have you ever seen a nuclear protest at faslane ever mention on the uk news?

and theres things that are duplicated - such as football results. rangers and celtic results or clips might be shown on uk news and then will also be covered in the scottish news. terrorist attacks in glasgow being covered by uk news programs as the top story and then being the lead story again on the scottish news.

the parochialism is the status quo. we are boxed in to presenting domestic news. anyone that wants to broaden their scope has to leave scotland for a big news network. what a chance this is to bring normal newsmaking to scotland, to provide us a better news service a keep skilled people and jobs in scotland.
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Reluctant Hero · Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 9:07 pm Post subject:

MacWhirter's take on a Scottish Six

http://www.sundayherald.com/oped/opinion/display.var.1612307.0.0.php
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SouthernJock · Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 11:57 am Post subject:

sgmillerton · Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 1:34 pm Post subject:

i personally think there is too much news on tv/satelite now. i can't see what this would add. there is grampians scottish news at 6, bbc at 6-30 and scottish bulletins 24hrs per day on several radio and tv channels. never mind the internet based media.
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Reluctant Hero · Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 2:18 pm Post subject:

Welcome to the board sgmillerton Very Happy

I agree that you have access to news any minute of any day. The problem with this is that you are mostly getting world news from an English or American perspective.

The difference a Scottish Six would make is that we would be able to get the world news from a Scottish perspective. The Grampian/STV news at six and the BBC's at 6.30 is mostly about Scottish stories and not the world news.
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sgmillerton · Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 7:45 pm Post subject:

voiceofourown · Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 9:40 am Post subject:

Hello sgmillerton and welcome to the board Smile

The McWhirter article cited by SouthernJock addresses your concerns about quality in a very convincing way. If you haven't read it, I urge you to do so.
You're right in your implication that ambitious, talented people tend to gravitate to where the money and power resides. That, in many ways, is what the argument is about. A better funded BBC Scotland, with greater executive powers, will retain more of that talent to the benefit, not only of BBC Scotland and the quality of it's output, but to the Scottish economy.
That, combined with the fact that much of the 'national' news is actually misleading and/or irrelevant for Scottish viewers, constitutes a very strong case in my opinion.
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Aventinian · Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 3:17 pm Post subject:

Economist · Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 3:51 pm Post subject:

Aventinian, did you read MacWhirter's despatch on this very subject? I suggest you do - and remind you that he is very firmly a Unionist, indicating that this issue isn't some kind of separatist plot to undermine the realm and Her Majesty's subjects.

I thought it was most excellent, in blowing the myths out of the water on this issue of Scottish news programming. They do this in Australia and Canada and in the United States. They probably do it in some European countries too.

I remember watching the local programming of one of the news channels in the Northern Territory in Australia and thinking how good it was to cut out the flab. Issues that were not of pan-Australian importance, were removed out of the news broadcast and replaced with issues of international importance, importance to the Northern Territory itself (total population less than 200,000) and issues relevant to the whole of Australia - like what John Howard was doing in the Parliament in Canberra. That way, Territorians weren't bored by what parliamentarians in Queensland were going on about, or how the education system in New South Wales was performing or other mundane and provincial things that didn't have a direct relevance to them. I didn't think it was parochial. The presenters were professional, local and the whole shabang was broadcast from the Territory capital - Darwin.
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Tamed by a Scotsman · Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 9:12 am Post subject:

When my partner and I first moved down to England in September 2005 it amazed us how long it took for any mention of Scotland to appear on national TV.

After a couple of months we came across a news article about how some villagers in Perthshire were campaigning to stop a developer ripping out some standing stones because they were reputed to be home to fairies. Now I very much doubt anyone does believe in fairies, it's obviously just a ruse to stop developers ripping up the local history. The only other time Scotland is mentioned is during the weather report when snow is falling somewhere in the UK. Then of course there's the obligatory (English) Daily Mail rant about Scottish Labour councils wasting English tax payer's money on social issues.

So overall, not a good impression of Scotland due to the very selective news coverage. I think my partner started to understand what I had been trying to tell him. Scotland just doesn't figure in most people's consciousness down here in England (well, before pre-devolution anyway) except when the Scots are being portrayed as wasting tax money, moaning or are reported as being superstitious yokels.

Because Scotland seems to be insignificant as a result of this coverage blackout, the things that the Scots complain about are also seen as insignificant. I remember a review of the headlines of the papers on the BBC news about the tilted weather map and how one person commented that the Scottish parliament should be concerned about more important things (also happened when parliament were deciding the official blue for the saltire).

The problem lies with the lack of any news coverage portraying Scotland as an equal partner. It is seen as a region rather than a country in its own right.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article592514.ece
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/...cle_id=462367&in_page_id=1770
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Maol.Chaluim · Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:04 am Post subject:

There's also the fact that news conerning England and Wales, a decision by the [UK] government for example, is often presented as "National" or UK news. Unless the newsreaders state that the matter only affects England and Wales (or maybe in some cases just England), then a lot of people will assume it's about Scotland as well (those that don't know the details of the Scotland Act). You could say that on occasion, people could in effect be being misinformed.
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sgmillerton · Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:05 am Post subject:

someone said they would like the news read to them in their own accent. now, if a member of the bnp said that what would be the response? what an idiotic and frankly rascist thing to say.