When bias might not be
The rural community complain of an inherent bias in the urban media, notes Dougal Paver. But are they getting their side of the story over?
There are many upsides to having kids - and when they both go to bed with no fuss at 7pm you can multiply that by whatever factor you like.
How to take advantage? Read, of course. Apart from Top Gear, what else is there on a Sunday evening?
And so it is that I spend weekend evenings catching up on my fishing and shooting magazines. Quite apart from surprising folk with how many times you'll find the word 'conservation' in each issue, they surprise me for summat else: the seemingly constant complaints about media bias.
In short, it's a given that all media - and especially the BBC's Countryfile show and its wildlife magazine - don't understand rural folk, the rural economy or rural pursuits.
So that'll be the media's fault then.
Er, no. Lots of rural bodies try and get their messages over to the media, but I get a hint of lack of co-ordination and low budgets. Any wonder if, as a result, the message doesn't get through?
Where the budgets exist to make a meaningful impact they get spent in the wrong place. BASC, of which I'm a member, is spending more than £600,000 on building a new media centre, complete with film editing suite to help them produce video news releases of the type you'll find elsewhere on this site.
The cost of video news production has plumetted, so why allocate such vast amounts of fixed capital to this when - as we do - you can make it a working capital allocation? Is BASC planning to be producing news around the clock?
I can't be sure, therefore, that our media is inherently biased against us country folk (although there's plenty of solid evidence to suggest they are) until we get our act together and properly manage a coherent, high-level and sustained PR campaign that doesn't waste money and which is creatively executed.
I live in hope.
PS. Taking eight clients fishing today, here. Baked trout all round in the Paver household, I can tell you...
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