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Charlie Beckett

January 18th, 2013

In praise of snow porn

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Charlie Beckett

January 18th, 2013

In praise of snow porn

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

From the Telegraph’s picture galleries

Lots of frozen white stuff has dropped from the sky upon (southern) England (and Wales). This is big news. Not big enough to push the appalling events in Algeria off the top of the bulletins, but nearly.

And as for social media. Well Twitter is even more excited by this than the Horseburgers.

I love it.

Some people don’t. Young fogies like (my co-author) Guardianista James Ball disapprove:

 

 

 

But of course, the lovely, talented James is too young to realise that it didn’t used to snow every winter in winter in the place that matters, (especially to the media) the South. This is still surprising. And what is surprising is News.

This is what my old boss used to called ‘weather porn’. People love to talk about the weather but they also love to see it. Endlessly.

It’s partly because it can be a bloody nuisance if you are trying to travel. It can even kill people. But it’s mainly because it is fun, beautiful and a change from the usual crap in our daily lives.

 

 

 

Never mind GDP taking a hit from the cold snap, all this sharing of the fun must be adding to GNH (Gross National Happiness). It’s also very creative. Perhaps not at a Picasso or David Bailey level, but what else gets so many people to write and make images with such imagination and enthusiasm?

Yes it is mainly quite silly. I have lost count of the hundreds of retweets my tweet from this morning got:

 

 

 

But weather-related humour is definitely a colourful thread in UK life’s rich tapestry.

The mainstream media got the message on this a long time ago. Yes, we can all laugh at the poor reporters trying to turn weather porn into proper news as they battle to broadcast.

But look also at the fabulous pictures galleries, the superb map graphics, the helpful videos,  and live blogging. It’s a feast of information but mainly, just very entertaining stuff. And it’s all beautifully networked.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

 

 

 

About the author

Charlie Beckett

Posted In: Director's Commentary | Journalism