Dateline 8-6-2016

Last night I discovered British documentarian, Charlie Brooker, who has an annual year-end recap special that's kind of a blend between The Daily Show and VH1's Best Week Ever. I found it to be a very interesting watch in more ways that just the programming. Since this is a Britain-based news show, I was able to get a taste of Non-American news.

Sure I do keep up with world events but it's filtered for through American media. Even when I see stories from the BBC or RT they're from the American branch of these channels so once again there is a filter. Also since these channels deal with foreign news I only see the big stories that could potentially affect America. That's why this special was particularly interesting. I got to see some of Britain's filler stories that distract their viewers from the real news.

One thing that I found very interesting is that reality seems to be as creatively bankrupt as Hollywood is these days. There seem to be only a handful of storylines that we're allowed to live by. Just watching the brief rundown of their last couple elections pointed out that everyone is dealing with the same thing. We just seem to have a bigger budget to make it more of an ordeal.

As far as politics go, everyone seems to be fed up with the insiders but for some reason, the masses seem to be drawn to the bigger maniac of an outsider over the outsider offering what seems to be at least an ideal start toward what the people claim they want. Then the people who scream the loudest for change stick to the campaigns that offer more of the same.  

Another thing I noticed that I felt a bit of awkward ownership toward the American stories being shared. No, not really the big stories that are obviously ours but there were times when an internet meme or some small story that filled the time between mass shootings that wasn't really location specific and was treated as if it happened there.

I found this extra weird because it's not like they claimed it was a local story, they just treated it like a story and that's it. I guess it's because America is so big that where a story takes place is always included in the news. I more feared a sense of media pride within me that reminded me how small the world is in an American's head. I have a friend from Guam who once told me the strangest thing about moving here was going from a classroom that had a map of the world as their focal point to classrooms with maps of America as his main view. Maybe I was just more disappointed because I wanted to see less of our influence in this other countries recap.

Maybe I found the whole show eye opening as to how the same but different we all are.  Keep in mind this insight is based on a comedic recap from 2015 and 2014 watched in that order, but most people only get their news from comedic outlets these days so I think my observation is still valid. 

I think I'm going to watch some more from this guy because I like the way he breaks down the news whether it's over there or over here, I think I prefer seeing an outsider's perspective at this point. 

I'll keep you posted if I find any other fun forms of news.

Talk to you tomorrow,

- The Wicker Breaker