Man arrested over burning poppy image

[BELGRAVE]

Originally Posted by stalin

what i meant to say was that when the Christ The Saviour Cathedral (the significance of which of course is incomparably smaller than that of the poppy image, due to the simple fact that Russia's is a neglectable culture, as we all know, and all of its sacred objects are allowed to be spat on, since British and American tabloids never mention it in there publications) has been desecrated by Pusy Riot, the mass media took side of the desecrators, immediately and unambiguously.

Really ? And when have I ever said that Russia's culture is "neglectable " ?

Personally. I am a great devotee of Russian literature, music and history, and so are others of my acquaintance. You really shouldn't generalize or be seduced by crude stereotypes.

[stalin]

Originally Posted by BELGRAVE

And when have I ever said that Russia's culture is "neglectable " ?

- never. i actually spoke of West media that neglects the real life of Russia and portrays it as endless "Putin & Kremlin" or "winter & gulags" stuff.

[Andy H]

Originally Posted by stalin

- never. i actually spoke of West media that neglects the real life of Russia and portrays it as endless "Putin & Kremlin" or "winter & gulags" stuff.

Hi Stalin

To some extent your correct. However given the magnitude of news stories both local and national, that International news unless its funny or overly specific tends to concentrate on the macro rather than the micro level.

Thus Putin will always win out on say some cultural good news story. As with all news, bad news always makes better news, sadly!

Regards

[stalin]

Originally Posted by Andy H

International news unless its funny or overly specific tends to concentrate on the macro rather than the micro level. Thus Putin will always win out

but actually Putin is a 'micro' factor in Russia, and his importance to us Russians is purely an invention of your local mass media.

[billscottmorri]

Amazingly Stalin makes a good point here. The western media needs to keep the attention of the viewer /reader so has to try and sum up a whole complex culture in a 90 second news clip so Russia becomes:

Putin, corruption, lack of freedom.

The whole Arab world becomes:

Chaos, corruption, Islamic loonies

In the UK America becomes:

Obese, weird, naive

To the US the UK is

Quaint, failed, royalty

And so forth. Of course Russia could do more to communicate a vision of how it wants to be seen but that is easier said than done and locking up some young women for years for an offence worthy of fifty quid fine does little to help that image. Also kidnapping anti Putin demonstrators who flee to the Ukraine is not so cool.

Perhaps we all deserve our stereotypes?

A Scottish newspaper analysed the stereotype of Scotland coming from the US media ( from Star Trek's Scotty to Groundskeeper Willy in the Simpsons as being agressive, drunken, quite hard working, emotional, drunken, intellectual.

It asked 2,000 Scots how they felt about that and the response was that it was fairly accurate.

[stalin]

Originally Posted by billscottmorri

Putin, corruption, lack of freedom

none of that is a problem the average Russian may encounter with on a daily basis.

Originally Posted by billscottmorri

locking up some young women for years for an offence worthy of fifty quid fine does little to help that image

then, a facebooker locked up by British police for sympathising the London rioters is now Britain's new image?

Originally Posted by billscottmorri

kidnapping anti Putin demonstrators who flee to the Ukraine is not so cool

Britain's sanctimonius treatment of Assange is cool then?

Originally Posted by billscottmorri

Perhaps we all deserve our stereotypes?

i don't think so. stereotypes is merely a political tool.

[DARKPLACE]

Originally Posted by stalin

- never. i actually spoke of West media that neglects the real life of Russia and portrays it as endless "Putin & Kremlin" or "winter & gulags" stuff.

They don't present the real life in the UK so why do you expect them to do a better job on your country?

[stalin]

Originally Posted by DARKPLACE

They don't present the real life in the UK so why do you expect them to do a better job on your country?

because British peoples can see for themselves the life in Britain but they need a mass media to see the life outside.

[Andy H]

Originally Posted by stalin

but actually Putin is a 'micro' factor in Russia, and his importance to us Russians is purely an invention of your local mass media.

Hi Stalin

That may well be correct but if you look at any countries view of another, it tends to be based on some very broad assumptions and perceptions, many of them outdated and false. Nobody has the real time to understand the nature of a country or its people, more than the people who live there. Even my last point has its limitations in countries as large as Russia, the USA and China etc. So just as there are international misconceptions, there are in these nations (and others) plenty of regional misconceptions too!

Regards

[Snowygerry]

Originally Posted by stalin

because British peoples can see for themselves the life in Britain but they need a mass media to see the life outside.

And just how did your perception of of life outside Russia came about ?

Seems to me the endless harping about The West is just the local variant of the endless harping about The Left by our US posters.

Other likely candidates are Terrorists, Europe etc.

Both ruling casts love to present their civiliians with an external antagonist to keep themselves in the cosy seats of power.

The lessons of the cold war were well learned by politicians, yet easily forgotten by the electorate on both sides it seems

[slick_miester]

Originally Posted by stalin

because British peoples can see for themselves the life in Britain but they need a mass media to see the life outside.

I'm not convinced of that. If Britons are anything like Americans or Russians -- which they are -- then they're quite prone to overlooking the obvious right in front of their noses. Indeed, most people are so well-conditioned that they deliberately overlook or rationalize what they see every day.