Media from different countries
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In the daily post there was an article about a daily Spanish paper that had obviously annoyed many people due to its content (Keith please don’t delete or add this to the day’s post).
As an Italian who has spent many years in the UK and understood that effectively there is no real coverage of F1 in the press out with basic information, I would like to understand why people in the UK are so willing to criticise any other European press. In Italy we have 2 national broadsheet sports papers that have every day at least 2 pages of F1. This includes technical drawings of new developments and parts along with full and detailed practice times along with anything (rumours included) that is happening within the sport.
In all my time in the UK (nearly 20 years) I have found very poor information and what I found was poorly researched, and the lack of information and detail was only out weighed by poor bias. It is easy for UK fans, of which they are many, to criticise this but in truth the UK press is biased and weak when it comes to F1. I saw the sports headlines when England played Germany in 96 and the popular press has Fritz on the cover with ‘we won the war’ etc. Sadly the same exists in F1, I’ve asked several people why Hamilton is loved/hated but still have no real answer. The true F1 fans that exist even out with this site don’t seem to be concerned about the lack of information thet is available within the press but are more than willing to vent anger at any foreign press that does so on a daily basis. There are many F1 site available to us all but I keep to this one because of the fairness of Keith and the majority of the comments. As a European, why is there so much hostility towards us and our better informed press?
Well, im not entirely sure.
When I started searching for news and reports on the internet about F1, I first started, obviously, with websites in spanish. Argentinean ones are rubbish, because they get all the information from european media, but it’s badly done.
Spanish media had no idea what they were talking about. Honestly, before Alonso, they hardly new anything about the sport. So I had to start trying my best with my poor english on F1.com and other sites. And I have to say, at least F1Fanatic, doesn’t seem biased at all.
I don’t know italian. But I sincerely doubt italian media said anything about Schumacher winning in Austria 2002. And if it was, there would not be much fuss about it. Because, lets face it, it was Ferrari winning.
I don’t know if it’s bias or not. Maybe it’s just an italian newspaper writing to italians about an italian team. You bet media here was already saying Jose Maria Lopez was a F1 champion waiting for his chances, even if that couldn’t be more rubbish.
Sometimes they go mad that way, which is went things start going wrong, supporting their driver no matter what. Or starting wars between the media and the people that consumes that.
Few spaniards like Hamilton. And maybe there are some guys in UK that like Alonso, but they are not the majority after 2007. All because of that media war.
That’s why one should read a bit deeper, to take that bias aside. And try not to go mad if there’s something one doesn’t like.
So because Italy has a dedicated sports paper, we can’t say that Marca is populist drivel? No, we may not have newspapers that delve into F1 in depth. That’s because F1 isn’t as popular in this country as Italy. McLaren isn’t a national institution like Ferrari is. What we do have is excellent sites like this one. In Italy, Keith would probably be writing for one of those newspapers. But at least he is writing them here. Just because it’s not in the newspapers it doesn’t diminish one bit the quality of the work he and others put in. It’s all too easy to think of the press as just the newspapers, but patterns have shifted in the UK. More and more people are dropping the rubbish newspapers and going online where they can find the quality they want. Taking blogs like these into the equation, British coverage is just as good as anyone else’s. We just don’t have it in the printed press.
You’re not even comparing like with like. The Daily Mirror (who had the England ’96 front page you referred to) isn’t a broadsheet. It’s a tabloid and as such writes rubbish just because it sells. I am sure there are Italian papers just like it. The reason we rely on this site, James Allen, Autosport, etc. is precisely because our tabloids are rubbish and our broadsheet audience isn’t as into F1 as it is in Italy. And knowing how rubbish our tabloids are we are perfectly in our right to point out how rubbish Marca is. How that is an attack on Europe in general is beyond me. Some comments were made about the quality of Bild; but there was also praise for L’Equipe. The rags of the world will always print trash about foreigners. They will also print a lot of trash about their own nation. It only upsets people when it’s against them. I have heard Europeans complain about British attitudes, only then to call Americans fat, lazy, stupid, etc. No-one is better than anyone else.
I just think all countries will ahve a certain amount of bias when it comes to the mainstream press. I know the UK can be absolutely awful even with their own drivers they can be horrid like when Hamilton got caught up in liegate he went from golden boy to devil quicker than his Canada pole lap.
We can’t really critise but then I guess others can’t critise us much if it really is the same everywhere else. The good thing is that if fans search a little they can find great journalism that really does the sport justice.
“I saw the sports headlines when England played Germany in 96 and the popular press has Fritz on the cover with ‘we won the war’ etc”
I’m doing my dissertation on English press coverage of the 2010 World Cup… there’s a lot of crap about the war, especially in the tabloids
Oh, and I agree with Icthyes. Ignore the press, they’re just appealing to the masses
well said rampante, couldnt have said it better myself, when in italy i love looking for autosprint and the papers , was in venice last year when fisi went to ferrari, the coverage was class and i got a superb poster too
on the footy front, enough said about her majestys gutter press, not being english helps cos you always get a laugh when engerland finally implode
I remember david healy and windsor park as if it was yesterday
we,re not brazil we,re norn iron
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