Tuesday 19 January 2010

Brooker's back with Newswipe

SATIRICAL columnist and presenter Charlie Brooker returns tonight with a second series of Newswipe, the current affairs offshoot from television review show Screenwipe.

Except for links when Brooker is sat behind a big desk in a mock up of a news studio, Newswipe is presented in much the same way as Screenwipe.

Brooker more commonly sits on his own on a sofa with a single camera in what purports to be his flat, providing a scathing commentary on the media's coverage of news events.

In his Guardian column prior to the first series of Newswipe last year, Brooker explained that the show was "not aimed at political junkies... [but] at people like me - average types who feel like they've fallen behind and are a touch ashamed about it".

As a matter of fact, overlooking the occasional intentional vulgarity, some of the critical analysis in the actual content would not look out of place in an academic thesis.

In fact, it could be argued that Brooker sheds more of the light of truth on the industry than any higher educational establishment ever has.

Brooker focuses mainly on broadcasting and the struggles of 24-hour news channels to fill all the hours of the day.

In the first series, broadcast in March and April, this was no more evident than when heavy February snowfall led the BBC News Channel to use thousands of public photographs to fill air-time.

He also criticised the widespread use of ludicrous gimmicks to explain complex subjects, such as the collapse of the economy. And he despaired at the pointlessness of some graphics showing meaningless percentages.

There was analysis of the media's treatment of grief and, in particular, the growing emphasis on emotion rather than facts ever since the death of Princess Diana in 1997.

This kind of reporting was widespread in all media forms after reality television's Jade Goody died.

According to Brooker, the tabloid newspapers "made a U-turn so big, it was visible from space". OK! magazine shamefully even went so far as to produce a tribute edition while she was still alive.

Another part of the series showed how rolling news coverage missed the point of the majority of the G20 protesters, and missed the biggest story of them all - the death of Ian Tomlinson.

Tomlinson died of a heart attack shortly after being shoved to the ground by an overzealous police officer as he made his way home from work through the protests.

Despite saturation coverage, it took footage from a person's mobile phone and rare "good, old-fashioned" investigative reporting to reveal the story in The Guardian.

Recently, Brooker has become more of a mainstream commentator with more television reviews on his Channel 4 series, You Have Been Watching, in summer 2009.

He also appeared alongside David Mitchell on C4's annual Big Fat Quiz Of The Year over Christmas.

Of course, there is nothing necessarily wrong with Brooker getting his voice heard on a more recognisable channel than BBC4.

But most of his fans would agree that he is at his best on Newswipe/Screenwipe when slouched behind the desk or on the sofa, slagging off the latest incredulous media own goal.

Newswipe with Charlie Brooker is on BBC4 at 10.30pm. Find out more about the upcoming series on his Twitter account, here.

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