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Phil Mercer |
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Wednesday, November 14, 2007More questions than answers.
This is an article thats going to appear in Oxfordshire Life next month:
We seem to be stuck in the sound bite era. It is rare to get a chance to hear someone's case without it either being filtered in to a 30 second chunk or with someone, normally of a sensationally opposite point of view, cutting in at every opportunity. I know its a bit hypocritical of me, but I really feel the media is at least partly to blame. There is always a need for a fight, its been a part of our human need for entertainment from the Greek and Roman times. The skull-duggory of emporers and kings past has been usurped by Brown and Cameron shouting at each other over a dispatch box. The thing is, when you look at the details you realise that there is very little sometimes to separate the opinions of the two sides. The battles become one of semantics, and those of us in the media are looking to create division where it often doesn't exist, so as to make things seem more exciting. Thats the nice thing about being a radio presenter, you occasionally get the chance to do something about it. On the Sunday breakfast show, we have built in time to get to understand the bigger topics. Thanks to the wonderful penmanship of Johnny Nash we have a great title as well. More questions than answers. In some ways, it is a bit of an indulgence. I have a thing about the big questions: Where do we come from? Why do we exist? Etc. So for one show I found someone who has been researching the scientific angle. The big bang. No surprise when this left more questions unanswered than we had started with. What came before the big bang? What will happen to the universe when it all collapses back in on itself? That kind of thing. As humans we strive to answer those questions, whether its through science, or belief. What is important, in a time when the media seems to always spoil for a fight is that we occasionally sit back and listen to someone's point of view all the way through. That way we may learn something. A few months ago we presented a series looking at the misconceptions around Islam. While one of the programmes aired I took a phone call from a listener who was horrified that we should talk about Islam on a Sunday morning! It seems to me, with attitudes like that, Sunday morning is exactly when we should be talking about the big subjects. But I don't promise any answers... Sunday Breakfast with Phil Mercer broadcasts between 6am and 9am on 95.2fm and can be heard on-line for 7 days afterwards at bbc.co.uk/oxford. Comments:
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