Thoughts: Local News Content

There was some media today concerning Win News' decision to cut back on local news staff in the Qld Regions. This decision isn't a huge problem (the real disaster occurred years ago when we lost local production) but it coincidentially ties in with another "major news" story that I think highlights the problem.

Like Katrina before it, Hurricane Ike (like all major systems that hit populated areas) MUST have immense learnings for communities all along the northern Queensland coastline. Yet, where is all the analysis in our local press? What lessons can WE learn? What mistakes are being made there that we MUSTN'T repeat here? Yes, there is coverage in the national media, but as these events are never likely to hit anywhere south of Rocky, there's no detailed analysis.

You can be sure that, if this was something that Sydney could endure, we'd have media all over the place running comparisons, etc. But not for us. And there's very little coverage (other than what they take off the news wires) about how these events might affect us.

Would local news production make any difference? Possibly not - the Townsville Bulletin IS locally produced yet still has feable coverage - but surely it would create enough content for a local production to at least be viable.

It also staggers me that in a city of over 180K people and in a region of over 600K people - that somehow we do not qualify for "local content"! Oh, the joys of capitalism eh?

Prediction - Anti-Plastic Bag Campaign ... By Retailers

With the price of oil set to stay high and keep going up in coming years, expect to see increasing interest from retailers in campaigns to "ban the plastic bag". It'll be dressed up as environmental concerns but has more to do with their bottom lines than anything.

Plastic, which is a derivative of oil, will becoming increasingly expensive in years to come. Shit, in the last 5-6 years alone, the price of their bags MUST have doubled (at least), so you could imagine their impact in coming years.

This may also explain why, in recent weeks, each time I've visited Woolies in their "express checkouts", that I've been asked "do you want to buy a green bag today sir?".

Oh well, I can't complain - any reason is a good reason I suppose...