There has been so much hysterical coverage of the Big Brother scandal this week and I for one clearly have not been able to stop myself from linking to the many stories that on this issue that have caught my attention this week. The extent of the coverage can be put down to several factors, I think. First, was the incredibly poor way Network Ten and Endemol Southern Star handled the controversy. By effectively over-reacting and trying to keep things quiet they actually magnified the problem. Second, the media's delight in reporting on a rival. The ridiculously ironic thing is that while the Ten Network was the one in trouble with ACMA, they never showed the offending footage on television while of all of their rivals did as part of their "news coverage" of the scandal. Third, politicians being only too willing to comment on the story. This wasn't limited to just the far right but comments by Kim Beazley and John Howard gave the story political legitimacy, which was only further legitimised by Helen Coonan's calling on ACMA to investigate and then suggesting ill-informed and impractical media reform when ACMA came to the only solution that was possible. Fourth, Australia likes this show. Although so many people are quick to condemn it, the reality is that people watch it and like to discuss it, even if in that discussion they are critical of it and express shock and surprise that people watch it. Talk about hypocrisy!
Anyway, there have been a couple of interesting articles in media today. One from The Sunday Mail on the stress the housemates are under (read it here) and another from The Age on how we can "shame Big Brother with our civility" (read it here - I think it's very funny):
The fact is if Big Brother's housemates did some of the things they do on our tellies in a public park, we'd tell them to put it away. There's nothing complicated about this. My four-year-old daughter knows that we don't talk about fannies and willies outside the house, even if, alas, it's a rule she's prone to announcing loudly in the supermarket. So maybe if we keep things civil among ourselves, we'll eventually shame the smut-wallahs off prime-time TV. In the meantime, we can only set our own tone.
