Anti-alcohol campaigners from the Centre for Alcohol and Tobacco Studies has urged the Advertising Standards Agency and Ofcom to ban all alcohol imagery before the 9pm time slot, claiming it has harmful effects on young people. The campaigners
also complain about breaks in Coronation Street, which sometimes feature alcoholic drinks.
The group claims that alcoholic imagery on the TV shows and advertisements correlates directly with the number of viewers over 15 years old who drink alcohol. According to Alexander Barker: '
There is strong evidence that viewing alcohol advertising or imagery has an uptake on subsequent alcohol use in young people.
The Nottingham University-based group analyzed 611 shows and 1,140 advertisement breaks between 6pm and 10pm and say that approximately half of the content broadcast featured alcoholic imagery.
The PC authorities banned the use of background allegiances as a convenient tag or adjective for terrorists. Now the high priestesses of PC have taken umbrage at replacement tags.
Media outlets had for instance tried to downplay the common denominator of islam by suggesting that terrorists were 'lone wolves'. Now the word police are claiming that the adjective 'wolf' has a positive tone, and so the media should find a new
less positive term.
The #WordsMatter campaign also complains about the use of the term 'mastermind' and nicknames such as the Beatles only glorifies them. The campaign also asks the media to avoid publishing images of terrorists in combat gear and using war
terminology such as soldier, which serves to legitimise them.
The group has produced a series of short films just released on social media to air their opinions. The films have been produced by the Tim Parry Johnatha n Ball Peace Foundation, set up in memory of the two child victims of the 1993 IRA bomb
attack in Warrington. The foundation has also helped compile a Counter-Daesh dictionary.
The dictionary also warns care over using words such as jihad, jihadi, and jihadi bride which often ignore the complex religious meanings of jihad. If reporting insists on its usage, ensure it is distinguished as violent jihad.
But forcing people to use the 'correct' words doesn't really work as intended. Artificial replacement words often emphasise obviously missing words more loudly than if they had used the originals. Eg a news report obviously trying to avoid
referencing islam shouts the unspoken connection as loudly as if it had been directly stated. Similarly the use of 'correct' PC terms emphasises the user's political correctness, and distracts from what they are trying to say.
Censors and moralisers continually succeed not just because politicians of all stripes are by nature morally conservative and stiff-lipped, and because the media is full of people who love to whip up moral panics to increase sales. By David
Flint
Anti-alcohol campaigners from the Centre for Alcohol and Tobacco Studies has urged the Advertising Standards Agency and Ofcom to ban all alcohol imagery before the 9pm time slot, claiming it has harmful effects on young people. The campaigners
also complain about breaks in Coronation Street, which sometimes feature alcoholic drinks.
The PC authorities banned the use of background allegiances as a convenient tag or adjective for terrorists. Now the high priestesses of PC have taken umbrage at replacement tags.
