This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/media-blog/2017/jul/09/grenfell-survivors-blame-mainstream-media-for-ignoring-them
The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Grenfell survivors blame mainstream media – how do we overcome mistrust? | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| “If I had my way,” said one passionately furious west Londoner recently, “I wouldn’t be out here talking, you would be the first person I would be seizing … you, the media.” | “If I had my way,” said one passionately furious west Londoner recently, “I wouldn’t be out here talking, you would be the first person I would be seizing … you, the media.” |
| Ishmahil Blagrove, the coordinator at Justice 4 Grenfell, was responding to my former Sky News colleague Jason Farrell, who was trying to get him to do an on-camera interview. Blagrove wouldn’t do the interview, but his anti-mainstream media tirade was filmed by others nearby instead, and posted on social media, where it promptly went viral. | Ishmahil Blagrove, the coordinator at Justice 4 Grenfell, was responding to my former Sky News colleague Jason Farrell, who was trying to get him to do an on-camera interview. Blagrove wouldn’t do the interview, but his anti-mainstream media tirade was filmed by others nearby instead, and posted on social media, where it promptly went viral. |
| “You are the ones who facilitate this,” Blagrove said of the situation facing his community. “You are the mouthpiece of this government. You are the people who make this possible. You are the ones who validate it. You are just as culpable.” | “You are the ones who facilitate this,” Blagrove said of the situation facing his community. “You are the mouthpiece of this government. You are the people who make this possible. You are the ones who validate it. You are just as culpable.” |
| Strong words, and in many ways unfair – since the whole reason the two men were speaking was that Farrell was actually trying to give Blagrove some airtime. But people are angry. Why the survivors of Grenfell Tower are angry needs, obviously, absolutely no explanation. Their demands to the local authority were ignored, the dangers they faced went unreported, and any avenues they may have had for initiating legal challenge were prohibitively expensive in the absence of legal aid. They were trapped long before their tower went up in flames. | Strong words, and in many ways unfair – since the whole reason the two men were speaking was that Farrell was actually trying to give Blagrove some airtime. But people are angry. Why the survivors of Grenfell Tower are angry needs, obviously, absolutely no explanation. Their demands to the local authority were ignored, the dangers they faced went unreported, and any avenues they may have had for initiating legal challenge were prohibitively expensive in the absence of legal aid. They were trapped long before their tower went up in flames. |
| Someone venting frustration with the media, taken on a mobile phone, can have greater reach than mainstream broadcasters | Someone venting frustration with the media, taken on a mobile phone, can have greater reach than mainstream broadcasters |
| From a media perspective, the film of Blagrove giving Farrell a dressing-down is indicative of something that affects far greater numbers than the hundreds tragically affected by Grenfell. It is the perfect example of how access to broadcasting has levelled out, in a world where somebody venting their frustration towards the media, captured on a humble mobile phone, can actually have greater reach than the mainstream broadcasters at whose hands they feel so oppressed. It is someone at grassroots level taking on the media in both content and form, to significant effect. | From a media perspective, the film of Blagrove giving Farrell a dressing-down is indicative of something that affects far greater numbers than the hundreds tragically affected by Grenfell. It is the perfect example of how access to broadcasting has levelled out, in a world where somebody venting their frustration towards the media, captured on a humble mobile phone, can actually have greater reach than the mainstream broadcasters at whose hands they feel so oppressed. It is someone at grassroots level taking on the media in both content and form, to significant effect. |
| But these dramatic instances of power reversal have done little to diminish the sense of injustice many feel about just who controls the narrative. There is an important story to be told here, in a week where both the president of the United States – with his supposedly humorous video of a wrestling match in which he beats up CNN – and, at the other end of the spectrum, homeless and traumatised survivors of a devastating fire, are coalescing around this persistent distrust in professional journalism. MSM. “Mainstream media”. | But these dramatic instances of power reversal have done little to diminish the sense of injustice many feel about just who controls the narrative. There is an important story to be told here, in a week where both the president of the United States – with his supposedly humorous video of a wrestling match in which he beats up CNN – and, at the other end of the spectrum, homeless and traumatised survivors of a devastating fire, are coalescing around this persistent distrust in professional journalism. MSM. “Mainstream media”. |
| It’s a complicated picture, one I can’t help but think it’s important to unpick. When the big news broadcasters did descend on the community around Grenfell Tower, they were blamed for having ignored it until a tragedy on this scale unfolded. And although many journalists have been covering the appalling state of social housing, and private sector housing for low-income tenants, the media have failed communities like those in inner-city tower blocks such as Grenfell, most obviously by ceasing to exist. The dwindling local press, as others have pointed out, has created a gaping accountability hole for which there is currently zero substitute. | It’s a complicated picture, one I can’t help but think it’s important to unpick. When the big news broadcasters did descend on the community around Grenfell Tower, they were blamed for having ignored it until a tragedy on this scale unfolded. And although many journalists have been covering the appalling state of social housing, and private sector housing for low-income tenants, the media have failed communities like those in inner-city tower blocks such as Grenfell, most obviously by ceasing to exist. The dwindling local press, as others have pointed out, has created a gaping accountability hole for which there is currently zero substitute. |
| Then there is the perception that, even when a story is told, the narrative is manipulated and the voices played out are cherry-picked. “When residents and supporters have been given, sometimes grudgingly, a voice in the mainstream media they’ve come across with great clarity, strength and determination,” wrote one member of the Grenfell community support group on Facebook, lamenting the fact that that hadn’t happened enough. | Then there is the perception that, even when a story is told, the narrative is manipulated and the voices played out are cherry-picked. “When residents and supporters have been given, sometimes grudgingly, a voice in the mainstream media they’ve come across with great clarity, strength and determination,” wrote one member of the Grenfell community support group on Facebook, lamenting the fact that that hadn’t happened enough. |
| This perception – Farrell may be relieved to know – goes way beyond the personal affiliation of any individual reporter. Hence the anger expressed at Channel 4 anchor Jon Snow when he spoke to members of the west London community, in spite of his increasingly notorious affection for the left-wing. | This perception – Farrell may be relieved to know – goes way beyond the personal affiliation of any individual reporter. Hence the anger expressed at Channel 4 anchor Jon Snow when he spoke to members of the west London community, in spite of his increasingly notorious affection for the left-wing. |
| It is based on a strongly, bitterly held belief that the media is beholden to a secret agenda pursued by the rich, powerful and rightwing. The near-consensus among reporters on Jeremy Corbyn’s supposed unelectability, which turned out to be untrue, only feeds powerfully into that belief. The sense of conspiracy should not be played down – the feeling of communities like those in Grenfell Tower being ignored, and of Corbyn having been deliberately maligned, are blended now in a thick soup of salty disillusionment, doled out on What’s App. No matter how much MSM airtime is now given to the Grenfell Tower tragedy, its iconic voices will forever be not news anchors, but people like Blagrove, and DJ Isla, – YouTube interviews circulated on countless, informal networks on the mobile phones of people who do not watch the news on TV. | It is based on a strongly, bitterly held belief that the media is beholden to a secret agenda pursued by the rich, powerful and rightwing. The near-consensus among reporters on Jeremy Corbyn’s supposed unelectability, which turned out to be untrue, only feeds powerfully into that belief. The sense of conspiracy should not be played down – the feeling of communities like those in Grenfell Tower being ignored, and of Corbyn having been deliberately maligned, are blended now in a thick soup of salty disillusionment, doled out on What’s App. No matter how much MSM airtime is now given to the Grenfell Tower tragedy, its iconic voices will forever be not news anchors, but people like Blagrove, and DJ Isla, – YouTube interviews circulated on countless, informal networks on the mobile phones of people who do not watch the news on TV. |
| Inevitably, new forms of media intending to cater to this anti-MSM audience are gaining more popularity and, as a result, ironically becoming increasingly mainstream. Kerry-Anne Mendoza, editor of the news site Canary – which some describe as offering to the left what the Daily Mail offers to the right – made her debut on BBC Question Time last week. Incidentally, after talking about Grenfell Tower and the fact that the mainstream media is still mainly dominated by white males, she was booed on air by what turned out to be a faction of the audience made up mainly by white males. | Inevitably, new forms of media intending to cater to this anti-MSM audience are gaining more popularity and, as a result, ironically becoming increasingly mainstream. Kerry-Anne Mendoza, editor of the news site Canary – which some describe as offering to the left what the Daily Mail offers to the right – made her debut on BBC Question Time last week. Incidentally, after talking about Grenfell Tower and the fact that the mainstream media is still mainly dominated by white males, she was booed on air by what turned out to be a faction of the audience made up mainly by white males. |
| Mendoza was up against Nick Ferrari, the LBC host, who incidentally told me on air last week that white men like him are now the victims of racism perpetrated by the survivors of Grenfell Tower, because they’ve been questioning the background of the judge appointed to lead the inquiry into the disaster. | |
| I’m always being accused by people I know of serving as an agent of “mainstream media”, it is sometimes levelled as one of the worst insults a person can conjure up. I find this doubly frustrating, as one of very few journalists from minority backgrounds, with my own critique of the way the media are representing people and shaping narratives, yet at the same time constantly having to defend the basic premise of what I do. The attack comes from the left and the right – people of all political and social backgrounds are losing faith in the establishment and anything it deems respectable. At the same time, I’ve also seen repeatedly how much – on a micro scale at least – this distrust can be overcome by being honest and open and proving that reporters come in search of facts, and not support for some sinister agenda. | I’m always being accused by people I know of serving as an agent of “mainstream media”, it is sometimes levelled as one of the worst insults a person can conjure up. I find this doubly frustrating, as one of very few journalists from minority backgrounds, with my own critique of the way the media are representing people and shaping narratives, yet at the same time constantly having to defend the basic premise of what I do. The attack comes from the left and the right – people of all political and social backgrounds are losing faith in the establishment and anything it deems respectable. At the same time, I’ve also seen repeatedly how much – on a micro scale at least – this distrust can be overcome by being honest and open and proving that reporters come in search of facts, and not support for some sinister agenda. |
| So it was good to see Farrell’s interaction with Blagrove ending with an amicable handshake. “I like you anyway,” Farrell said to Blagrove. | So it was good to see Farrell’s interaction with Blagrove ending with an amicable handshake. “I like you anyway,” Farrell said to Blagrove. |
| “I like you too,” Blagrove replied to the reporter. “I like you fried, oiled, any way I can have you, motherfuckers.” | “I like you too,” Blagrove replied to the reporter. “I like you fried, oiled, any way I can have you, motherfuckers.” |
| Out of Vogue | Out of Vogue |
| The post-Vogue meltdown by fashion director of 25 years Lucinda Chambers has been widely reported this week, after she told niche fashion site Vestoj what she really thinks of the magazine. “There are very few fashion magazines that make you feel empowered,” Chambers said. “Most leave you totally anxiety-ridden.” | The post-Vogue meltdown by fashion director of 25 years Lucinda Chambers has been widely reported this week, after she told niche fashion site Vestoj what she really thinks of the magazine. “There are very few fashion magazines that make you feel empowered,” Chambers said. “Most leave you totally anxiety-ridden.” |
| It is weirdly refreshing to hear such an influential front-row figure admit to sharing the emotional turmoil so many of us experience in response to the pressure to look perfect, fashionable, rich and thin – pressure which Vogue has come to personify. But I can’t help but wonder why it took Chambers a quarter of a century to share with the rest of us how damaging she thought the images she was designing really were. “I haven’t read Vogue in years,” she said. Now you tell us, Lucinda. Thanks. | It is weirdly refreshing to hear such an influential front-row figure admit to sharing the emotional turmoil so many of us experience in response to the pressure to look perfect, fashionable, rich and thin – pressure which Vogue has come to personify. But I can’t help but wonder why it took Chambers a quarter of a century to share with the rest of us how damaging she thought the images she was designing really were. “I haven’t read Vogue in years,” she said. Now you tell us, Lucinda. Thanks. |