This is the Walking Enigin News
WE live in a 24/7 society - so we are led to believe - and the media tell us that this is the case, then they go and fulfill the need they tell us we all have for continual rolling news.
Was the advent of CNN or some other station - I am not sure and I am not sad enough to spend time finding out - but at some point over the last 15 years suddenly news on the telly changed from set times (6pm, 10pm midnight etc. or hourly on the radio) to the rolling new we have all got used to.
Aligned now with the internet we can get news from anywhere at any time, we can even be ahead of the news if we make use of Twitter, as people in newsworthy regions and events post practically live from the front line.
So much information so little time.
The problems evolve from the overkill - even a fascinating story that grips begins to lose all appeal after you have heard the same item over and over again. Particularly as the constant coverage sees little movement of the story.
You end up getting updates based on the slightest change, with reports such as: “The press secretary did just walk along the corridor so we expect to see the Premier any moment for this press conference.” That is real news!
Then to provide the background we get the expert wheeled out - usually someone who knows a little about the point or people in the news, they possibly worked in the particular location or spot several years ago, but now they are an expert and we have to hear this person drone on about something they seem to know little about.
To interact with the audience they are invited to text and email their opinions - that isn’t news, that is allowing all us to vent our feelings and I do not want to here what Mrs Miggins thinks of climate change.
I thought it would be funny to do a spoof of this with one of our Enigin Videos - do an Enigin News item like they do on the TV - a big screen behind the presenter with the requirement that he no longer sits behind his desk but has to walk up and down, as if that makes any sense. On second thoughts we will forget that idea.