Like the other two, perhaps still relevant for those who missed it first time round
How political issues were covered by BBC Reporting Scotland and STV News in the four months before the UK General Election 2015
Like the other two, perhaps still relevant for those who missed it first time round
How political issues were covered by BBC Reporting Scotland and STV News in the four months before the UK General Election 2015
Talking-up Scotland 
Professional Propagandists, they aren’t Journalists. Apart from Big Ken, ,he’s alright. John Beattie started off well but the incessant courses are producing the desired effect.
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Please accept my apologies, Clydebuilt, for my comment below, it was not my intention to cast any aspersions at all on your opinion, or preferences of journalist – it was honestly just a general comment on how can we know what a broadcaster or writer is thinking when they claim to be unbiased – but it was badly put. I think you know already I don’t always get the tone right, or meaning across, but do agree with you on nearly everything (just sometimes a bit too secretly).
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Well, now that I have a PhD in Propaganda Studies (somewhat ill-won when it was awarded just to get me to shut up about bumblebees)(which hasn’t worked !!), I can speak authoritatively, and what you should be aware of, Clydebuilt, is that just because you like a writer does not mean they don’t indulge in propaganda – just that you like their style of propaganda. If a writer does not declare where their interest lies, what their own ideologies are, then you cannot read what they write with proper perspective and you cannot know in what way they might be trying to influence you. [how am I doing John? Can I take off the L-plates yet?]
The SNP, in particular Nicola Sturgeon, says it will always present any subject in a way that shows them a good light – this is transparency, they ARE a political party, and she tells us to treat them as such – I.e., they may miss out any bad bits that are uncomfortable for them, just as all political parties will. Unfortunately, the only way to really find out what our Scottish government is doing is to read online their direct publications – but as long as we read it knowing the ideology behind the report, we can keep it in perspective. What I have personally found is that the SNP does not knowingly mislead – they miss out some not so good bits, but tend not to misreport – sailing close to the wind sometimes, but they do not give us outright lies. I see this as a bit unfair on them – they cannot go full bore onto the propaganda bandwagon & can come across as weak to some (not me, I find it admirable that they stick with it in the political sphere). And I think it is sad that one of the few reliable sources of clear information is a political party. But, I also find it heartening that Scotland has a new kind of politics, one that treats everyone with respect. If I was inclined to join any singular group, they would be top of the list (at this moment in time!).
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At long last this sites got a resident troll. 7.00am is that when your shift started?
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A troll? No critical friend?
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Gosh. Is that what trolling is? I thought it barely critical. Ah well. I will shut up then!
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(as always, John, feel free to delete any of my comments, never any offence will be taken by be. I don’t want to be noising-up any other readers.)
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Don’t shut up please
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Of course not, I’ll just tone it down a bit. I was just getting full of myself after thinking I had a PhD 🙂
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Hi Prof – Hi all.
Golly Sam – I know that trolls are a big nuisance but I certainly am not seeing Contrary in that light – not one little bit.
I hope I’m not a troll either!!
Contrary – please continue to post here – I have enjoyed the verbal sparring and the ideas being teased out along the way – and look forward to reading your marrying up of experimental Physics with the current Scottish polital situation (should be interesting).
Back to the day job – I won’t bang on about NHS Scotland beating the 95% A+E Waiting Time target in June – I think I’m right in saying the figure achieved was 95.3% (as an NHS Scotland person myself I find this really pleasing – the unionist parties attempts to ‘weaponise’ NHS Scotland is something I find particularly reprehensible – but don’t get me going.)
Instead I will talk about hotels. I remember the Prof recently sharing some figures indicating hotels based in Scotland being differentially more profitable than those based elsewhere in the UK.
Certainly seems clear that the Berlin based Leonardo Hotels Group are keeping a close eye on Scotland.
They have a large hotel near Heathrow airport but recently purchased the former Premier Inn at the Haymarket and are investing 7 million Euro in refurbishment (also sent 9 Edinburgh staff members for 1 month high quality training in their German hotels). – Well – seems that today Leonardo have purchased a group of 5 Scottish Hotels (Scottish Portland Hotels) with properties in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth and Aberdeen. (6 of Leonardo Group’s 7 UK hotels are inow in Scotland – yes – that’s the same Scotland that has an SNP Govt).
How dare the SNP baaad Scottish Govt create an economic climate where world class European hotel groups want to come to Scotland and invest large sums in refurbishment and staff training? – Get on with the day job why don’t they??
Cheers all, Ludo
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Thank you Ludo, I hope you aren’t a troll either because I thoroughly enjoy reading your good news sound-bites! Maybe Sam would prefer we all went off and trolled together somewhere else?? If he was a regular reader of this blog he should know that I’m hardly awake at 7am, let alone getting into work at that time, in fact, he’d realise that this blog is an hour behind the rest us, if he was a regular reader, and so that time was 8am. Unfortunately name-calling does not help us out in working out the offensive parts of my comment, it would have been more helpful to say that it was offensive (barely) – I should probably apologise to Clydebuild, he does get irritated with me at times, but I think we get along when I’m taking things seriously – and maybe Sam is a troll himself? I have no idea how to tell – grousebeater enlightened me one time when I tried to answer a very confused comment on his blog – so I leave comments that make little sense well alone now. But as to the main criteria for judging? No idea.
Anyway, for some bizarre reason, John likes my rambling, and I like to ramble, so we have a good working relationship going here, and if it helps his healing process in any way I will not be going anywhere – though I WILL stick closer to the ‘positive only’ chat. We are, together, embarking on eliminating Thinking Errors – that world where everything is bleak and everything is negative in your mind – and using only positive interpretations to turn them around. John is winning so far, I need to apply myself more. But who would have thought this idea for a blog would turn out so well in practice – I mentioned in a previous comment (troll troll troll) that it is proactively adressing the deficit in our news. (instead of retrospectively countering what has already been reported). I think it a success, whatever the number of visitors to each article might be.
Very interesting to hear about a European hotel group investing in Scotland – they sound serious if they have been doing training, refurbishing and buying on such a scale, good tourist numbers must be an attraction as well,,, perhaps they don’t expect the GBP to recover and/or see an iScotland as a good place to be? Do you think any of the frequent visits the SNP has been making to Europe have had any hand in this?
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