How new and old media has been getting it wrong with the bushfires
The bushfires have brought out some of Australia’s finest journalism in broadcast, print and online – not least a first person piece by the Australian’s Gary Hughes which has been reproduced around the world. But there have also been some terrible howlers.
In the most offensive example, Crikey’s Margaret Simons reports today how the UK’s Mail On Sunday newspaper tried to write a funny headline around a photograph of a fire crew fleeing a dangerous situation. It headlined it: “”Er, Bruce…the fire’s the other way!”
Meanwhile, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph fell victim to bad flatplanning with the example on the right emailed to Mumbrella.
There were also bad examples within social media. Laurel Papworth writes how one site promoting the TV series Lost, autoreplies to anyone using the phrase in a Twitter message. This included people talking about lives lost in the fires. Her posting later triggered an apology from the person behind it who promised to stop the practice.
And Travolution reveals how the Australian travel guide Please Take Me To… chose to start Twittering yesterday, with a message promoting “nice video’s of Victoria”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Here’s another one I just came across.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/
After clicking on a video story on the Vic Bushfires, a mandatory 60 second commercial began playing. It talked about a man who ‘couldn’t handle the land of the living so until he joined the land of the dead’ — Ricky Gervais’s Ghost Town.
It might seem a trivial oversight in the context of things, but really…this is like programming aircrash investigatons as inflight entertainment for a long haul.
Is there noone who can take responsibility for this sort of thing?
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Thanks for the link, hon 🙂 There are I guess two issues.
One is that automated advertising always has the potential to f**k up. Oh for the good ol’ days of laying out a newspaper on the subeditors desk, page by page 🙂
The other is value systems. We often make bad jokes about crisis – remember the steve irwin jokes? Lindy Chamberlain? Depending on our mood, our values, the context, one time they will seem hysterically funny, another incredibly inappropriate.
So I guess broadcast advertising will by nature not be affected by personal choice. And social networks based on friends/follower relationships may be deeply affected by an unfunny joke.
By the way, mentioned your blog on the global PR conference in London video, dear 🙂
*whispers* oh and link in Blogroll is outta date – now laurelpapworth.com.
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Here’s an idea for all those who make contextual advertising/news systems: Have the ability to flag an article as “Potentially Bad Taste”, so these sorts of scenarios don’t happen, and you don’t get advertising and marketing people taking the piss out of you every time this happens.
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Ta, Laurel.
(And blogroll duly updated…)
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
I am still shocked no one has seen/mentioned the google adsense ads running alongside (not sure if they still are) stories on the fire on heraldsun.com.au. Baaad taste.
This is so not cool. Most of them you can forgive for idiocy/ bad luck. But not the “Behind you Bruce” headline.
Is Mail on Sunday a Murdoch paper? If so he should be firing someone.
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No, it’s not owned by Rupert Murdoch – it’s Lord Rothermere. I don’t think they have any media here – which is a pity as I’d love to boycott them.
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I thought Channel 10 was showing poor taste on Thursday night showing this episode of The Simpsons – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homerazzi
“After failing to blow out all the candles on his birthday cake, an exhausted Homer falls asleep, igniting his party hat on the flames. The burning house is saved by the Springfield fire department who inspire Marge to purchase a fire-proof safe to protect the family’s valuables.”
All that in the first 5 minutes. Pretty poor form.
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You might also like to have a look at an article in the Guardian by an expat.
The link is supplied within this short blog post.
http://greghardwick.com.au/australian-bushfires/
Bit out of date now, but it’s still worth a read.
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