“The View From the Phlipside” is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY. It can be heard Monday through Friday around 7:30 AM. The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program. Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moment’s notice. WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed. You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com. Copyright 2013-17 by Jay Phillippi. All Rights Reserved. You like what you see and hear? Drop me a line and we can talk.
Programs from week of January 14, 2018
This Week’s Podcast
My name is Jay Phillippi and I’ve spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
The Facebook Puzzle
I’m just going to confess this right at the top of this program. I am utterly confused by the changes that are coming at Facebook. And I am even more confused by the expected outcome of this change.
Last week Facebook founder and head honcho Mark Zuckerberg announced that the all seeing eye of the social media giant, the algorithm, was going to be changed. This comes after a year where Facebook got hammered over and over with questions about what effect it had or didn’t have in 2016. Did the algorithm of blessed memory promote news stories of dubious value and did it have an overall negative impact on the lives of its users?
These kinds of question seem to disturb Zuckerberg at an almost primal level. He fought against the accusations for a long time but now seems to have been overhwhelmed by evidence that Russian agents had used the service to spread spreads aimed at polarizing the American public.
So starting…sometime soon, the algorithm will be adjusted to prioritize content that comes from family and friends and de-emphasized content that is coming from publisher’s and brands. The announcement talked about decreasing the volume of materials that stress us and make us unhappy.
So my first confusion is what exactly is being eliminated? I get very little on my feed other than my friends and what they link. The only impact there is that the more popular posts will be emphasized even more under the new system. Which means those long political tirades that some of my friends get involved with will get higher exposure. How does that lower my stress on Facebook.
They also say that “reputable publishers” posts will get emphasized. At the moment, they can’t define what qualifies as a “reputable publisher”.
My other main point of confusion is the idea that putting more emphasis on my family and friends posts, and less on marketing and news posts will result in me spending LESS time on Facebook. I’m on Facebook to hear about what my cousins on the other side of the country are doing. To re-connect with friends from camp, or school or college. I think the assumption is that, without news in our feeds, we will leave Facebook in search of news elsewhere. Once again, I think Facebook doesn’t understand the community it has created.
I have to be honest with you. I think people will LOVE having a zone relatively free from the news.
Of course, what I really want is for Facebook to leave my feed status on “Most Recent” rather than “Top Stories”. That may be too much to hope for.
Old School Sports
I have been a sports fan for as long as I can remember. Like most boys of my generation, it began with baseball, followed quickly by football. The sport of warm summer days, and the sport of cool autumn ones. Basketball was something you played around with a little, and hockey was unheard of in the Pennsylvania suburbs of my youth. Along the way, I would discover a few other sports from around the world through ABC’s “Wide World of Sports”.
Along with the voice of Jim McKay, it was Keith Jackson that narrated a lot of those early sports memories. Jackson passed away over the weekend at age 89. He was old school when it came to sports broadcasting. His style has been described as “minimalist”. It was a clear, concise description of what was going on in front of him. Mostly. Jackson was also known for his little side trips into whatever jumped out at him in the moment. It made him a great broadcaster and someone you felt like you knew all at once.
Thinking about his old school style got me thinking about where we find ourselves today when it comes to sports broadcasting. At the center of the sports world, the undisputed though not always beloved, world wide leader in sports is ESPN. As I’ve noted here before, not everything is joy and wonder on the campus in Bristol, Connecticut these days.
There have been layoffs, accusations of sexism, and a decline in the number of subscribers. The politics in sports debate has centered there as well.
I am a long time fan of ESPN. I was fascinated by it when I first came upon the 24 hour sports channel. Scores and updates at any hour of the day, and amazing surprises like Australian Rules Football. And the anchors were allowed to have a little more personality. Much closer to George Carlin’s Biff Barf than Keith Jackson. It was fun.
Over the years ESPN has gotten much more serious about itself. I’m not sure that’s been an improvement. Much of their recent problems on air have come from moving away from sport journalism toward sports commentary. Commentary is valuable, but it feels like we have five commentators to every journalist. The result is an ever rising volume of shouted opinions and talking heads. Like a lot of sports fans, I’m beginning to get a little bored.
Maybe a return to some old school wouldn’t hurt. Games first, scores and highlights next, the great feature stuff third and commentary last.
Just feels like we need a little more Keith Jackson, and a little less biffin’ em up and barfin’ it back at us these days.
Smartphones and Education
My working life has been dominated by two areas, the media and teenagers. I have now worked just about the same amount of time in each area professionally. So the stories that have started popping up about how smartphones are destroying our children and ruining school piqued my interest.
The latest addition is a program on the A&E Network called “Undercover High”. The show sent seven young adults into Highland Park High School to film what is alleged to be a “typical American High School”. I’m not certain what that even means, but the first show in the eleven episode series aired last week.
The first conclusion they came to was that smartphones were destroying education. Students were shown to resisting any attempt to separate them from their devices. The very clear impression was that the smartphone situation was completely out of control.
I’ve spent the last year working as a substitute teacher in a suburban school district outside Richmond, Virginia. So that claim struck home for me. Struck home at how overblown it was.
Are smartphones everywhere in schools today? Oh, yeah. Are some students attached to them to what appears to be an unhealthy degree? Yes, some are. But only some. In the eight or so high schools I’ve worked in there is an issue with phones. But I see no evidence that the education of the student body as a whole is being destroyed.
But let’s get beyond my anecdotal experience. Is there solid research on the subject? It doesn’t appear so. Remember, smartphones have only been around for about seventeen years and have only been popular for about ten. The issues related to them are still so new that no long range research has been even possible. The short range research indicates that the linkage to problems are probably being exaggerated.
Here’s the real problem. It’s not the young people, it’s the old ones. Just as Jazz was going to destroy the youth of the 1920’s and Swing was going to do the same to the youth of the ‘40s, and Rock in the ‘50s, old people freak out when confronted with something new among the younger generation. And the young people just roll their eyes. And survive.
Are there legitimate issues with smartphones? Absolutely. Are there real issues about what’s happening in the education of our young people? Again, absolutely. What we need to do is work on the real problems, rather than the ones that make for slick television. Our children and the world deserve at least that much.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
Copyright Jay Phillippi, 2017
Theme music for “The View From the Phlipside” and “TVFTP – Podcast” is “Hustle”
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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