Context Statement

To begin with, I found expository/opinionative writing challenging because I could not think of anything I felt strongly about, until Prince Harry came to Australia and Mary Donaldson was announced as the next Princess of Denmark. Both these subjects received a lot of coverage and The Mercury overly used the story of Mary. I quite enjoyed looking at how bad The Mercury can be and trying to argue my point on how it is becoming a gossip magazine. It felt like a diary while writing my article as there was something stupid about Mary each day.

Media

Recently in the national news and The Mercury there have been news items that have been the number one story, which I think, should be relegated to a gossip column. The absolute rubbish that is being published in recent issues of The Mercury and so called news items on the news are wasting ink, paper and our time, the items: Prince Harry in Australia and Mary Donaldson and the Danish Prince are surely not worthy of being top news stories. I know the media and news are supposed to inform people of current events but the articles that are making the news are just being used to increase sales by drawing gossipers in.

On the front page of The Mercury (25/9) is the article Fairytale now a reality for Mary is about how Mary Donaldson is going to become the Danish princess and Queen in waiting. The article says “No date has been set for the wedding, but speculation is rife it will be held in the European spring -- next March, April or May.” The word speculation means:

1.Contemplation or consideration of a subject; meditation.

2. A conclusion, opinion, or theory reached by conjecture.

3. Reasoning based on inconclusive evidence; conjecture or supposition.

This word indicates that this is not an entirely factual article and contains idle gossip. Also in the article, it says Miss Donaldson recently said her first Danish words publicly in response to a question about a fashion show. "She simply said `magnificent' in Danish -- but everyone went wild because she was speaking Danish," Nielsen said. This is useless information, I don’t see why we need to know that she spoke a word of Danish, there are babies all over the world speaking their first word why don’t they get front page in the paper?

The article goes on to tell Mary’s life story and how she has made the prince a better man, bla bla bla, it really is utter rubbish that is far better off in New Weekly or Who magazine.

The following day in The Mercury the front-page article was Mary’s royal babies pledge. Once again the article contained gossip: “It is believed Mary, 31, and the former playboy prince have escaped the spotlight by fleeing to Rome for a holiday.” One thing is for sure; The Mercury does not really know what’s going on. I also love the phrase “playboy prince”; it is very gossipy and so ‘classy’. The article is about how she will have to allow her children to be brought up in the Royal Family. I really hope this is not true, as The Mercury will have more gossip to fill their front pages. What I find more amazing about The Mercury is, that from pages one to four it is filled with information about Mary Donaldson. It seems as if The Mercury have used Mary as page fillers because there are some really bad articles such as, Waimea pupils ready to celebrate, too. As if any of the students at Waimea actually care.

Also there was another article Danish royal website makes it all official, I think we have made it official enough over recent days let alone having to write about an article on a website making it official. If you thought that wasn’t enough, an article on page four makes a comparison between the Danish Prince and Mary and Princess Diana and Prince Charles, any excuse to get Diana back in the papers and I don’t think Prince Frederick has the same ear size as Prince Charles. I certainly hope that Mary does not come to the same fate as Diana because we’ll never hear the end of it for another five years.

On the next day, they somehow managed to have more articles on page one and three. This time about previous teachers of Mary who really do have amazing memories and about how there will be tourism benefits. It is probably an exaggeration as we are supposed to “reap tourism benefits”. I don’t think the Danes will be that excited about Tasmania; the statistic given is that 17,400 visitors have come from continental Europe this year to our shoers. It would have been more interesting to see how many were from Denmark; somehow, I don’t think the 9.6% increase on the previous year is all because of Mary. I think the increase in visitors this year has more to do with the fact that terrorism was a very dangerous and real thing in the region last year with the Bali bombings and there was sure to be an increase in visitors this year after things had cooled down.

Another intrepid traveller out in Australia is Prince Harry. On the 23/9, I was watching the news and the very first item shown was Prince Harry visiting the zoo. They even had a reporter on the scene saying that you have to feel sorry for Prince Harry, well I really do feel sorry for him having a holiday in Australia and not having to pay for it: it must be so hard for the young Prince. To think that someone visiting a zoo can make it to the first news item is absurd, even if it is Prince Harry. I know the Australian public is obsessed by royalty but there are much more serious happenings in the world other than Prince Harry’s vacation. We’ll probably get a day-by-day guide of Prince Harry’s trip everyday in the news and newspapers.

These sorts of stories are what make The Mercury one of the worst papers in Australia. The Mercury’s main articles for the 25th of September were Fairytale now a reality for Mary and Unholy Move. Whilst the main article in The Australian for the 25th was Missing Bombs a Terror Threat, about the new terror threats in the region. I think that the terror threats to Australia are far more important and informative than a Prince and a Princess to be. When you put The Mercury next to The Australian, it seems like a gossip magazine.

The likes of Mary princess to be and ex-queen of television and paper Regina Bird, who has faded into obscurity thank god, are both prime examples of the utter crap and useless information that make “newsworthy” stories and that are now produced and shown in the news and newspapers. If only the editors could, work out the difference between a report in the newspaper and one in New Weekly we might have a more serious and credible newspaper in Tasmania. Leave the gossip in magazines and the real news in the papers and television.