More than just inane chatter

What do you think? We want to know. There may only be 150 words on this blog, but, come on, have YOUR say.

15 years ago direct public opinion on TV was limited to ten minutes with Terry Wogan on ‘Point of view’. Since then it’s seeped through Big Brother and reality TV into virtually every news and current affairs programme going. As Kate points out all too often news programmes jump from a shallow summary to hear what ‘ordinary people’ think with barely a thought of in depth analysis or expert opinion.

This tendency towards filling air time with inane opinion is illustrated in this amusing Mitchell and Webb sketch:

But away from the lazy, and cheap journalism the move towards greater public interaction can have huge benefits.

Listen to the Radio 5 Live phone-in on a weekday morning and there are two types of topic up for discussion. In the first a group of people who don’t have anything original to say discuss whether there should be another Diana inquest or whether Rugby or football is ‘better’. But start a conversation about how the prison system works or the decline in rural village life and the show is packed with people who really know what’s going on and who, on the whole, listen to each other with respect.

Prison officers, excons and victims of crime argue and bring their experiences in a far more revealing way than the minister for prisons or an ivory tower expert ever could. Over the course of an hour and a half you can begin to build up a real picture of how it looks when government policies meet the real world and real people.

So of course there’s always the person who comes on a show pedalling an unthinking, ugly ‘throw away the key’ mentality, but hopefully once aired such views can be challenged by people who’ve been there and know what it’s like. The 5 live phone-in demonstrates that when a show is properly hosted and mediated that some ignorant shouters and inane opinion are worth it to let the public have their say.