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Political Savvy?

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Monday, October 21, 2002 Posted: 7:18 AM EDT (1118 GMT)

LONDON, England -- One in 10 Britons cannot name a world leader, including their own, pointing to a nation "dumbing down," a survey says.

Britons proved to be more switched on to television soap stars than politics, forcing Whitaker's, who commissioned the survey, to call for a new look at the way current affairs is presented in the UK.

Eleven percent of Britons questioned could not name a single world leader, but nearly half can list five characters in the BBC soap hit EastEnders.

And as Britain gears up, alongside the U.S., for a possible military strike against Iraq, Albert Square's Phil Mitchell (An Eastenders character) is almost twice as well known in the UK as Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The best known world leaders were UK Prime Minister Tony Blair (83% percent) and U.S. President George W. Bush (82%).

But only 25% could name Saddam. Others on the list included the presidents of France, Jacques Chirac (23%); Russia, Vladimir Putin (16%); Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe (6%); and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (6%).

Whitaker's has written to the government calling for a review of all news gathering.

Lauren Hill, Editor of Whitaker's Almanac which carried out the survey entitled "Is Britain Dumbing Down?", told the UK's Press Association: "These results are concerning and we can only conclude from this report that Britain certainly is 'dumbing down'.

"The population has become fanatical about celebrities. With major political and international news continuously on the agenda, we believe that the government has a key role to play in encouraging people to become more interested in current affairs and the world around us."

Reality game shows emphasised their popularity with more people (25 percent) being able to name the winner of the latest Channel 4's Big Brother, Kate Lawler, than key figures in the British Cabinet including John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister, and Gordon Brown, Chancellor, (both 24 percent).

Asked to name five current Cabinet members, 42 percent could not come up with one.

The lack of political knowledge could be attributed to an unwillingness to keep up to date with current affairs, especially among women.

Only 8 percent of women could name five world leaders, compared with 17 percent of men.

Nine percent of the 1,000 people questioned admitted to never watching, listening or reading the news.

People were more likely to regularly watch soaps, reality TV and sitcoms (86 percent) than spend an hour a day watching news (51 percent), the survey found.

When asked to name characters from EastEnders, 63 percent of those surveyed named at least one and 46% named five.

Top of the list was Phil Mitchell (44 percent), followed by Mark Fowler (40 percent), Pauline Fowler (30 percent), Peggy Mitchell (28 percent) and Lisa Fowler (24 percent).

Hill has written to Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell. Hill added: "There is so much information out there and we feel people should be encouraged to go out and grab it with both hands.

"As a result of this research, we are writing to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport for a review of all news programming."

And some would privatize the BBC?

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yes, well I would. :):p
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Its so depressing, at least no-one can use the old 'Americans are stupid argument' anymore....................
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by Toadborg
    Its so depressing, at least no-one can use the old 'Americans are stupid argument' anymore....................

    Don't bet on it.....

    Ever seen the Peter's Projection of maps, or the Universal Corrective Map of the World? It's somewhat distorted. It's upside down, for a start, with the n. hemisphere in the south, and the southern hemisphere on the top of the map, and it's centred on Australia...

    When asked to identify the US, most high schoolers asked pointed to either China or Australia, because it was big and roughly central....

    *sighs*
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yeah but surely this survey shows that we as a nation are equally as ignorant, our schoolkids are probably as bad.........
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    And with such low levels of knowledge about the people on the world stage, what do you think the levels of knowledge about the issues on the world stage are like. And we expect people to undertake an even remotely intelligent exercise of the franchise?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I posted this on a thread in Anything Goes, but it's applicable here:

    Quotes from the "This is London" article.
    One in ten Britons is unable to name a single world leader - but half can list five characters in EastEnders, according to a new study.

    Alternatively, "90% of Britons can name at least one world leader, whilst half cannot name at least 5 characters from EastEnders."

    The survey, Is Britain Dumbing Down?, found that nine per cent of adults - 4.32million people - never watch, listen to or read the news.

    Alternatively, "91% of adult Britains watch, listen to or read the news."


    They claim this is evidence of "dumbing down", but we have no comparitive figures for previous years from which we have dumbed. I'd be willing to bet that if you did the same survey in 1900 the population would have appeared considerably dumber. I doubt that it would have been above the current levels at any time since.

    I feel that people should have an interest in current affairs and politics, but I don't think they should be forced to or criticised if they don't. It's a personal choice. The article is just a good example of presenting statistics in a very one-sided manner.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    That's why, as Greenhat pointed out, the BBC should remain public. A private, commercially driven BBC would engage in even more direct competition with ITV and Sky 1. The few factual programmes we have would disappear- as it has happened on ITV- and we would all end up drooling over our chips watching repeats of You've Been Framed and PopStars.

    This will probably send shivers through onenatcons' spine ;) but I believe the State has an obligation to broadcast current affairs programmes, even if the watchers don't want it to watch them. In pretty much the same way as the obligation to give our children an education.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    That was taken from the "daily mail".... Which should tell you something about the accuracy and objectivity it displays....

    Good comment Vox populi, vox Dei. I think your comments sum up pretty much what i thought when this was pointed out to me....


    "...and now we know there is at least 1 journalist that cannot read and interpret statistics."
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I admire your optimism and all of these surveys should briefly detail how they were cariied out but..........

    25% recognise Saddam!:eek:

    Good God!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    [/QUOTE]

    Is this one of these:

    So what if we're thick/ nasty /ugly /fundamentalist

    cos you lot are too threads?

    Using a poll from the Daily Mail? How clever is that?

    :crazyeyes

    And if it's true, I blame the american multi-nationals that are taking over private education!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    That's just reminded me of that case in the states about a t shirt, a school and a case of.....never mind, I've just found the article.
    Student Suspended For Wearing a Pepsi T-Shirt!

    by Todd Wiese toddw@theroc.org

    Yep! Another student has gotten himself in trouble at school for wearing a t-shirt the officials didn't like. And just what offensive death-metal band graced the kid's chest? Cradle O' Filth? Marilyn Manson? NO! Pepsi Cola! Mike Cameron,19, a Senior at Greenbrier High School in Evans, GA, was suspended for one day for wearing the Pepsi t-shirt on official Coke Day! "In my eyes, I didn't do anything wrong," said Mike.

    "We had the regional president (of Coca-Cola) here and people flew in from Atlanta to do us the honor of being resource speakers." complained Gloria Hamilton, the principal of Greenbrier High, in defense of Coke Education Day. "It's not a Coke- Pepsi war issue. It has nothing to do with that. It was a student deliberately being disuptive and rude." The event was organized as part of a $500.00 contest ran by the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Augusta.

    Mike's prank (and that's ALL that it was, a PRANK) not only involved wearing the shirt on Coke Day, but also in ruining a group photo where all the students stood in the form of the Coke logo. At the last minute when the picture was to be taken, Mike removed an outer shirt and displayed his Pepsi t-shirt. Coke executives seemed to take it better than Gloria Hamilton did. "The kid did what a kid does," said Diana Garza from Coke. "We have people coming into the World Coca-Cola (museum) in Atlanta wearing Pepsi shirts." Get over it, Gloria! Coke did!

    Besides, what the hell does ANY cola, Coke OR Pepsi, have to do with public education? Selling out a students right to express his opinion (in this case his choice of soft drink) to win some contest sponsored by a COLA COMPANY is insane! Public schools are not funded by silly contests or multi-national conglomerates! They're funded by American tax dollars. This incident shows us not only the problems of abuse of power by school officials but also what a mess our school system is in when we have to resort to suspending kids for choosing the WRONG COLA!

    Pepsi spokesman, Brad Shaw was as amused (if not angered) as we are, it seems over the incident. "It sounds like Mike's obviously a trendsetter with impeccable taste in clothes. We're going to make sure he's got plenty of Pepsi shirts to wear in the future once we track him down."

    If you want to tell principal Gloria Hamilton to stick to concentrating on the challenge of educating America's future instead of taking the Pepsi Challenge, you can reach her at this address:

    Greenbrier High School
    5114 Riverwood Pkwy, Evans, GA 30809-6628
    tel. (706) 650-6040

    http://www.theroc.org/updates/pepsi.htm

    Isn't corporatism wonderful :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Exactly, they've just taken a load of statistics and switched them round. It's all bollocks. If you want to prove it wrong, just walk into a pub and ask a random person what they feel about the situation in russia or China.

    A little anecdote, in an American high school, 40 children were asked who won the US war of independance, who was the British prime minister during world war 2, and who the US president was. The only person to get all 3 correct was the only British child in the class.

    Greenhat, instead of pointing out that 90% of British people are able to name a world leader, instead try and work out why 90% of Americans will never leave your country, have decided why not wearing a seatbelt is a good idea, and have no idea how to tie their shoelaces.


    If you do want to see Americans humiliate themselves, just type "examples of American stupidity" into a search engine. On Google I got a return of 21,700 websites in 0.14 seconds :D
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by Whowhere
    90% of Americans will never leave your country, have decided why not wearing a seatbelt is a good idea, and have no idea how to tie their shoelaces.

    and if you believe that bullshit, then I have some really prime real estate in the Everglades which you might develop into a resort...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by Whowhere

    Greenhat, instead of pointing out that 90% of British people are able to name a world leader, instead try and work out why 90% of Americans will never leave your country, have decided why not wearing a seatbelt is a good idea, and have no idea how to tie their shoelaces.

    So, you think privatizing the BBC is a good idea?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    No, not particularly.
    BBC should remain public, someone mentioned the whole BBC thing as a joke.

    Sopite, what are you on about? The Everglades being a crocodile infested swamp in Florida, oh wait, was this some sort of clever statement? Sorry for ruining it.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by Whowhere
    No, not particularly.
    BBC should remain public, someone mentioned the whole BBC thing as a joke.

    Anybody else think onenads was joking?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by onenatcons
    Yes, well I would. :):p


    you take that seriously?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by Whowhere



    you take that seriously?

    I assume you completely missed the other thread, huh?
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