The media - my nightmare experience

My last blog entry about the way the media manipulates the news stories on any given day to make them more "interesting," "shocking" or down right frightening lead to a lot of comments here and on Facebook. I feel it is only fair to state my interest in this area.

About 14 years ago I experienced first hand the duplicit, manipulative and destructive nature of how news is produced in this country. I got cought up in one of those all too common media frenzies or cricuses. I'd love to say I was some minor celeb or one hit wonder pop sensation. But no, at age of 22 I just happened to be teaching English and Drama at a school in Halifax which the Sun in it's own inevitable style dubbed "The School from Hell." The school in fact was like many other failing comprehensive schools in England at the time, except at this school the media got involved.

Anyone too young, or had a life back in 1996 and so missed the Ridings "scandal" here is a link to a bbc news piece which touches on it.

Yes the school had problems, it was a newly merged school in an incredibly deprived part of the country. I went there as a newly qualified teacher wanting to make a real difference for the children. What I experienced there was life changing but it wasn't the children's behaviour or the reaction of my colleagues around me who were breaking down in various ways. It was the media intrusion which has caused me the most problems over the years.

Forget the underhand shenanigans of tabloid journos paying kids a fiver or a tenner or a packet of ciggies, to tell them exsagerated tales of debauchery and thuggery - that was bad but I wasn't naive enough not to know that kind of thing went on. It wasn't being chased down the street by cameras being asked for comments or being phoned at the weekend by journalists. I was a rare commodity, a young female teacher at the school, and blond to boot. Nor was it when every front page in the country ran with the story that a young female teacher, me, at the school had had her "bottom pinched" by a student. I knew the union were likely to leak that to the press, I'd said," ok whatever needs to be done" to it.

No, all of that I was prepared for the minute the media got involved. No for me the part I still can't quite come to terms with was the utter contempt for me and the children I taught, that the BBC showed when they filmed me in secret, teaching and then broadcast it on the news as well as Panorama.

They got access to my classroom by paying an elderly gentleman to use his flat because his living room had a perfect view into my classroom, the only class room in the whole school that had not got any proper curtains or blinds. I taught drama in my classroom as well as English and the day they filmed I was teaching, drama, English and also looking after my form group during break and lunch time because we weren't letting the kids out to play because of the worlds press camped on our doorstep (My great aunt in Perth Australia got to follow the story too.)

The BBC then edited the filming of drama lessons, lunch and break time socialising and one English lesson into one short piece that made it look as if all this "mayhem" was going on all at once. It looked like I let children eat at their desks during lessons, jump around and pull faces at one another. Not good in lessons but fine at lunch time! No faces were pixelated out to protect the children or me. I was warned that the filming had happened on the Monday morning that Panorama was due to go out and advised by the union not to talk to anyone in the media.

Seeing myself on Panorama was bad enough, after showing the edited hatchet job on me they cut to Chris Woodhead then Ofsted chief who said "There is clearly some poor teaching going on at the school." Clearly inferring that I was delivering some of this poor teaching.

Then to my shock my image was brandished across the 6 O'clock and 9 O'clock news. Again as evidence of poor teaching!

I felt humiliated, violated and utterly defenseless. I also felt such shame I felt as though I had let everyone down, even though I was helpless in the situation. Some of the children shown in the footage lost their Saturday jobs for being associated with the school and the filming. Another lad received a beating from his Dad just for getting on the telly, even though he wasn't doing anything bad at all in the footage. I didn't need to have anyone give me a beating, the BBC has done that and I just added to it myself with feelings of worthlessness I had evidence now in film.

My confidence and self esteem plummeted and the aftermath of the media interest in the school lead to things getting worse before they got better. Local trouble makers and bored ex-pupils were attracted to the place once the media left, and targeted the Ridings. A lot of local anger was aimed at the school.

So I had to deal with more challenging situations because of the media legacy whilst having lost just about all of my sanity because of the way the media had exploited me to gain some good footage for a short slot on their TV schedule.

So I have an interest in the way the news is made and reported and I never believe what I see or hear. Nothing is ever as it seems.

Glasgow and why the news makes me mad

I am in Glasgow today and most of tomorrow for work. I'm going to be talking to some union activists at a conference.

While I'm typing this in my hotel room, the Curling is on the TV, as part of the winter Olympics. It's nail biting stuff as Britain (really Scotland as it's a Scottish game and the team are all Scots) have to win this match in order to stay in the Olympics. It's basically gone to a tie break.

When ever I am in Scotland for work there seems to be curling on the tv, Olympics or not, so it is reassuring to have it on now.

On arriving at the airport I got a cab into the centre of Glasgow, the cabbie had the local news on which ran with the following top story, presented in a breathless manner "It has been revealed today that knives and swords are the weapon of choice for committing murder in Scotland" The real news story was about the murder rate dropping! Even the BBC are at it though, they run with the headline that knife crime is at a record high, whilst paragraph 3 of the story clearly shows that actual murders were down last year. There were 20 fewer murders. The way news is reported makes me quite cross. (I also wondered about the swords in the headline, is there still a lot of dueling going on in Scotland?)

My pique was to rise considerably further whilst watching the 6 O'Clock news on the BBC. Sophie Raworth squirmed with embarrassment as she read out that Cheryl Cole is to separate from the philandering footballer Ashley Cole. She even had to explain who Cheryl Cole was in some kind of justification for why this had found its way onto her script and so the news. I have to say I admired the presenter of the BBC Scotland news who read the headline out at the close of her programme with such utter disdain and disinterest it was heart warming.

But while I'm ranting I was also shocked yesterday there was a news story about a leaked BBC memo which outlined who's death would elicit what kind of announcement and programme alterations on the BBC. I was not surprised to learn that the Queen's death and those of Prince Philip, Charles and William would be treated with maximum response, if you see what I mean. However if our Prime Minister dies this would be ranked below the royals listed above. Surely our PM who ever they are, is more important than the Queen, or I'll concede to the royalists at least as important? It was alleged that the PMs death was in a category along with Bob Dylan. The mind boggles. Maybe we should elect Bob Dylan as PM. I think he'd win right now with everyone hating the majority of politicians currently on offer!

But back to Glasgow and bonny Scotland. It is predicted to snow quite a bit tonight and tomorrow so I will endeavour to take some pictures and battle my way home against the elements.

sadly the women's curling team lost and our out of the Olympics :-(

zzzzzzzzz

I haven't blogged this week due to feeling tired all the time. Although I'm only working a 2 and a half day week I feel more like I'm working a 6 day week. I guess it just shows that working part time is the right thing, how would I have coped with full time? It is very frustrating being so tired though. I fell asleep last night at 7:30 pm and that was after a day that was relatively quiet and stress free. In the morning Jase and I walked to Homebase. I bought a fern for the living room, I am determined that this plant will live. Our living room doesn't get much light but enough to support a fern I am sure.

We then took a walk past where they film the Bill, and I saw Sun Hill nick and the fake A&E department of the hospital they always go to in the Bill, I think it's called St Lukes but it is a long time since I've watched the Bill. They have to take down the police signs when they aren't filming in case someone thought it was a real police station. We went shopping, I cooked kedgeree, watched some winter Olympics and that seemed to tire me out like I'd run a marathon!

I know it is going to take a long time for me to get back to "normal" or at least feel well, I am just very impatient.

Today I have been making some compilation CDs and iTunes playlists. I'm particularly enjoying Dizzee Rascal and Florence of Flo and the Machine live at the Brits earlier this week, and Marina and the Diamonds; I am not a robot (something I need to remind myself on a daily basis)

My Auntie Joyce

Auntie Joyce, Mum, me, Dad, Auntie Gill, July 1995 at my Graduation

Thursday was the funeral of my Auntie Joyce who died suddenly on the 2nd February not long after her 78th birthday. At the funeral we were asked to think and hold fast the memories we have of my Auntie Joyce, and I wished at the time that I had been able to share some of those memories with everyone at the funeral. So I thought that this blog would be as good a place as any to write about my Auntie Joyce and my memories of her.

I will always remember my Auntie Joyce with a smile on my face, she was always laughing and making jokes. The last time I saw her, in the summer, she was joking as soon as I arrived, usually at my Mum's expense. Visiting my Auntie Joyce was always fun when I was little. There would always be sport on the telly, my uncle and aunt were the first people I knew who had cable TV this was back in the 80s before Sky. They had cable for one reason only, so they could watch the sport. I loved watching the sport, we never had sport on at home unless it was the tennis at Wimbledon once a year. Although my Mum watched a lot of sport when she was younger she didn't watch much when I was young. It was thanks to my Auntie Joyce and my Nana that I have my love of sport.

As well as the exotic treat of watching sport on the telly, there would always be pop to drink and chocolate biscuits and when I was older, sweet tea with sterilized milk. In Stoke-on-Trent where my Mum's family are from, sterilized milk was popular into the 80s, it had a very distinctive taste and came in longer narrower bottles than pasteurized milk.

My Auntie Joyce also had a loud but soft dog when I was little called Rex. He was a part border collie and a soppy looking thing, his bark was so fierce though and he wouldn't let the rent man into the small block of flats my Auntie Joyce lived in. My Auntie and Uncle were sent letters about their "fierce" dog and had a sign saying "Dangerous dog at large." Of course the dog was all bark, once he'd calmed down he was a big softy.

My Auntie Joyce always had a funny story to tell you about something she'd been up to, like the time she called out the sheltered housing warden because she was convnced she had heard a burglar in her bungalow. My Uncle Norman had heard nothing and when he and the warden had searched everywhere and found nothing they questioned my Auntie Joyce about what the noise had sounded like. She thought for a while and finally said. "Well it sounded like coat hangers clattering, when I come to think of it." They opened the wardrobe and sure enough found the clothes and coat hangers all on the floor of the wardrobe and the pole holding them up fallen too! Those coat hanger burglars had struck again!

For me though my over whelming memory of my Auntie Joyce is a feeling and that is the total feeling of love, warmth and pride that I would feel when my Auntie Joyce would hug me. She had such a generosity of love and warmth and I always knew that she was so proud of me no matter what. I just hope that I can be an Auntie to my nieces and nephew, like she was an auntie to me.

Fat Fife Hedgehogs

I heard this news story on the radio earlier and there is a video on the BBC website I've linked to. 10 hedgehogs at a wildlife centre in Fife have been put on a calorie controlled diet to help them lose wait. The hefty hedgehogs are so rotund they can no longer roll into a ball and protect themselves from predators.

I have a lot of sympathy with these hedgehogs, since Christmas I've found it hard to shed the lbs I need to, and I managed to shed half a stone over 4 months before Christmas. I don't want to undo that! So for me and the hedgehogs its healthy eating. It's tough when the weather is cold and miserable.

Jase made me one of my favourite meals tonight, omurice: Japanese comfort food of rie, chicken and tasty sauce wrapped in an omelet. It's so tasty and Jase made it beautifully.

Sad news and the week ahead

I woke this morning at 4:30 AM, which really is a ridiculous time to wake up when my alarm was actually set for 7! I couldn't get back to sleep so eventually gave in and got up at 5:30. Only 3 days ago I couldn't get out of bed I was so tired, but I did have a migraine for a couple of days which didn't help with the tiredness. So at the moment I'm either feeling exhausted or waking up very early and not able to sleep. I can't win!

I don't have a lot to report from last week. My family had some very sad news last week my Auntie Joyce, my Mum's aunt, died suddenly but peacefully in her sleep. My Auntie Joyce was one of the kindest, warmest and funniest women I'll ever know. We will all miss her a great deal. This week I'll be going up to Doncaster and then over to Stoke for the funeral.

At the end of this week I also have an appointment at Moorfields Eye Hospital to see the geneticist. The last time I saw a geneticist about my eye condition was over 20 years ago and the science of genetics has progressed so much since then. I am curious more than anything to find out if the cataracts I was born with are likely to be passed on to any children I might have. We don't have any known instances of cataracts in children in my family, other than me, so the previous advice was that my condition is probably a mutation. Hopefully now they'll be able to do a test to find out if I am a mutant or not. I just wish some X-Men / Heroes like super power could be part of my mutantness! But then again maybe it is...

Hanzaki - Japanese giant salamander

This story and videos on the BBC website are excellent, all about the Japanese Giant Salamander or Hanzaki. It looks like a giant tadpole turning into a frog creature except it has quite ferocious teeth! I didn't know such a creature existed in Japan, I might have looked out for one when I was over there if I had done!

The other news story this week that caught my interest and made me laugh was the one about Co-Op "Ambient Sausage Rolls"