Anyone up for a spot of Bingo?

Tom Dunne

A type of bull**** bingo, though with a media slant.

What I propose is that when we spot an article in a newspaper with the standard tabloid cliches, such as "close-knit", "tragic", "lashed out" and so on, we post a link to it here. If it isn't online, a brief synopsis along with the all-important cliche-count will suffice. After a designtated period of time (probably a couple of months), I will knock up an Excel graph with the details.

In all seriousness, I think it would provide an interesting statistic on the state of the media in Ireland.

What do you think?

mike65

Could be fun and illuminating, should be stickied though. Maybe any story from a tabloid should be given a score with minus 50% of total cliche count that its shorthand for them.

Mike.

J.S. Pill

tom dunne wrote:

A type of bull**** bingo, though with a media slant.

What I propose is that when we spot an article in a newspaper with the standard tabloid cliches, such as "close-knit", "tragic", "lashed out" and so on, we post a link to it here. If it isn't online, a brief synopsis along with the all-important cliche-count will suffice. After a designtated period of time (probably a couple of months), I will knock up an Excel graph with the details.

In all seriousness, I think it would provide an interesting statistic on the state of the media in Ireland.

What do you think?

I think it would be a lot less hassle to get some post-grad to do that for us

blue4ever

mike65 wrote:

Could be fun and illuminating, should be stickied though. Maybe any story from a tabloid should be given a score with minus 50% of total cliche count that its shorthand for them.

Mike.

That’s a bit sanctimonious.

So what if tabloids use clichés – its part and parcel of their reporting style – and a style that close to 300,000 choose to buy into every day (three daily Tabloids ABC for June) - let alone Sunday's where the 'cliché market' accounts for half the sales.

Tom Dunne

blue4ever wrote:

That’s a bit sanctimonious.

So what if tabloids use clichés – its part and parcel of their reporting style – and a style that close to 300,000 choose to buy into every day (three daily Tabloids ABC for June) - let alone Sunday's where the 'cliché market' accounts for half the sales.

But the likes of the so-called respectable papers, such as the Indo and the Sunday Tribune also use these clichés. That to me says these papers are sliding into the abyss of tabloid journalism.

J.S. Pill

tom dunne wrote:

That to me says these papers are sliding into the abyss of tabloid journalism.

That, amongst other things

blue4ever

At least the Tabloids are Ronseal (do what they say on the tin – possibly a tabloid 'cliché).

And a good point on the other papers – esp the Sindo – jasus how tabloid can you get. But it’s not considered thus.

Look at the story about Marcus Thingy and his bird who de-robed in his ‘chipper’ for ‘photo shoot’ – tabloid or what. What’s more, they bled it to death.

I love some of the terms – like they never say scientists – they say ‘boffins’ - great stuff. lighten up! Some people like it – they buy them – some people don’t like it and they don’t buy it!

The comments above suggest that there is something wrong with tabloid journalism (if such a thing exists).

Is the ‘photo shoot’ I mention above and the subsequent curtain twitching articles about the break-up ‘Tabloid Journalism’ – if so we really should find another expression for it as those articles in the Sindo were an insult the papers nearing an A3 shape and size!

Tom Dunne

blue4ever wrote:

The comments above suggest that there is something wrong with tabloid journalism (if such a thing exists).

The comments above relate to something broader than tabloid journalism. They relate to the steady downward trend of reporting standards.

Jackie laughlin

See the thread "40 lashes".

I think tabloid journalism and ****e (This will be translated into asterisks by the auto censor!) or flabbergab are distinct. On one level the use of cliches and buzz words is funny but boring. At another level it is highly significant. For example people are now "disadvantaged" rather than poor.