MASTERCHEF, Our Perfect Wedding, Date My Family and The Voice. It seems everyone and their mother has a reality show and like everyone in the world, I am addicted to reality television and want to jump on the bandwagon.
Although it would be financially beneficial to have a “The Seabi’s take Palmietfontein” show, screaming at my mother or getting into physical fights with the neighbours to earn my keep rather leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Instead, I would want to be part of a reality show about a newsroom.
We all know these reality shows are scripted, right (hope I didn’t ruin the ‘magic’ for anyone), so instead of going through the hassle of finding script writers and whatnot, with a newsroom reality show, all the production company has to provide is just the camera and the lights, the action is free of charge.
Readers have the notion that putting together a newspaper is easy (I blame the Hillside Times from 7de Laan for this), and that anybody can do it, but it is not. At the end of most days, some of us call it a good day when you didn’t need bail money or didn’t have to hide any dead bodies. Especially if you are a sub-editor. Yes, it is that bad. From the journalists who misspell people’s names and just about every other noun in the dictionary to clients with unreasonable demands and screaming matches with the sales reps, the newsroom is often a war zone. And that, ladies and gentleman, is entertainment gold. I wonder why nobody has never thought of this before.
But aside from entertaining viewers (and gaining fame and money), the show will also show viewers that the media is not as bad as most people think or make us out to be.
The stories you read about, the comments that people give, that’s all real, we did not make it up like most people (who are often guilty) claim we do.
Unfortunately, facts often come in the way of a good story and readers are left reading nothing but the truth. As it happened. The media are not monsters. We do not feed off people’s pain or enjoy ‘taking someone down’, we are merely in the business of informing residents about what goes on in their community. Yes, the things you read about are not always pleasant, but so is life.
The media is not all bad, and if we could tell our side of the story, why not do what we do best by entertaining you while we do it.
