Hard News by Russell Brown

Yours TV looks awesome, even if I'm not sure I look forward to a day when teenagers might have more effective and relevant media than their parents and grandparents.

Without knowing exactly how to measure and compare it, is there any word on the types of ratings or viewership it gets?

Without knowing exactly how to measure and compare it, is there any word on the types of ratings or viewership it gets?

TVNZ (and I presume Damian) will know exactly how many views it gets. That's one advantage of web video – you can actually measure it.

Yay in-house sub eds.

As for the word "brand", unless it pertains to a mark on a cowhide or corporate/trademark styling, it's just about guaranteed to refer to wank. It's even worse than sports teams being referred to as "franchises".

Hence: an editor should be a "wank champion"? (Cf. esp. Herald)

Tracy, do you claim to be immune to emotional influences in your choices about the stuff you consume?

The term "brand" accounts for just this. How you feel about what you get.

Doesn't mean good journalism doesn't count. Quite the contrary. But do magazines have any future besides a trans-media one? And if so, what do you call them? Because the magazine part is just that: a part.

My emotional response to most job ads I consume is "I'm dying a little inside with every bullshit word", so maybe HR departments need to "rebrand" too.

But do magazines have any future besides a trans-media one?

Quite possibly. It's a rational strategy to ensure that a magazine is only readable in print. Not sure if there are many such publications. If the revenues from the website are less than the costs of maintenance plus lost print sales, then it would make sense commercially.

My emotional response to most job ads I consume is "I'm dying a little inside with every bullshit word", so maybe HR departments need to "rebrand" too.

As someone who is currently attempting to learn The Bullshit Language of Professional Networking, in order to market myself and show how 'passionate' I am about my work, I award this comment all the stars.

a media venture?

The most painful read of all time, job ads. Patronising, unfocused drivel written by Robots to employ mythical superhuman people who never complain and show a real passion for whatever fucking task is awarded them in order to obtain cash to pay rent and food bills. Stepford employees wanted.

Keen on YourTV, that looks promising.

Job ads are only worsted by actual HR "interviews". I am good at interviews, much to the disgust of people who don't know that interview performance is no guarantee of job performance. Normally there are clear warning signs and if I'm not desperate for the job I'll walk when they start wanking about the corporate cult.

The worst thing is the way that corporate dreck spreads, like a fungal growth.

There is a community arts organisation I know that started out as a bunch of crazies burning an effigy on a beach. Now they're all "leadership summits" and "360 degree performance reviews". Combined with whining that not enough people are volunteering to join the managerial hierarchy they just made.

The most painful read of all time, job ads. Patronising, unfocused drivel written by Robots to employ mythical superhuman people who never complain and show a real passion for whatever fucking task is awarded them in order to obtain cash to pay rent and food bills. Stepford employees wanted.

And if they’re worthless to the average job applicant, they’re even more worthless to jobseekers with disabilities and mental illness who have difficulty building meaningful work connections. Especially those on the autistic spectrum, who find the job interview process inherently discriminatory towards them. The result is that people who often have Mensa-grade IQs waste their intellect on dead end jobs or no job at all.

I’ve worked out that the best approach for such people is some kind of apprenticeship or on-the-job approach – perhaps like the Mainstream Programme – but such an approach is basically a social contract, and social contracts often need big investment to make them happen. As it stands, it’s far less hassle to hire someone already with the skills who’s just stepped off a jumbo jet, than to spare the expense of getting those on the bottom rung up to speed. Proposals like the ICT apprenticeship scheme would have addressed such an unmet need.

Big changes at Native Affairs.

Not noted in that release: the resignation of gutsy Native Affairs producer Annabelle Lee.

Job ads are only worsted by actual HR “interviews”.

My main experience with typical job ads has been that, at least in my own (IT) sector, they’re frequently for jobs which no longer even exist, and largely still remain in the list so recruitment agents can suck applicants in to be part of their buzzword-organised portfolio which they often don’t, themselves, necessarily care much about understanding.

I wish there were a more fair way, but with job ads in the normal places, any fairness is exchanged for a high dose of irrationality. I’m ashamed to admit that every job I’ve had to date has come either from a direct approach, or by knowing people who know me.

I'm pretty good at interviews too, but I hate all the corporate drivelspeak and have no idea what purpose it serves. And all the welcome venting here makes me wonder: who are the people who buy this stuff and take it seriously? Are we all perpetrating, as the ancient slang goes? What if we all just... stopped?

thus ends challenging current affairs on NZ tv.

Let's hope the folks creating Yours TV can do a more effective job some day, if they're not already.

Amen Danielle.

The worst thing is the way that corporate dreck spreads, like a fungal growth

Along with endless meetings that eliminates any time to do the actual job at hand, then to be told at the next meeting of the "Team building " activities on Friday in which you will lose half a day travelling somewhere only to be locked in a room with a time limit to find ones way out of said room when really, you could just stay at work in the room that you can do the bloody job in!

What if we all just... stopped?

Exactly.

ETA, I see my post to R of O got tangled in this to Danielle. cant fix it.

Cheers Russell,

Thanks for the shout out for our Crowd-Selling campaign. Following after our February March Crowd-Selling exercise Scoop's future in the news business looks likely to involve more crowd collaboration.

Its an interesting new world of news that we are moving into.

Al