A raid on the inarticulate
NOP World Culture Score(TM) Index Examines Global Media Habits
BBC Online discussion of NOP report
Okay, I suppose we must start by saying that the statistics used by NOP are all based on self-reported activity. But even so, shouldn't we be concerned that the UK's reported time spent reading is very near the bottom of the scale, while the reported time spent watching TV is an hour and a half more than the global average?
At first glance, this does seem worrying. 5.3 hours a week reading is less than an hour a day, while 18 hours watching TV works out at more than two and a half hours.
But what does NOP mean by 'reading'? Doesn't this in all likelihood include magazines, newspapers, trashy romance novels and thrillers? It's too easy to place reading as a pursuit way above watching TV, yet I can think of a lot of quality television programming from which I've profited far more than from reading Heat magazine whilst waiting in my local Chinese takeaway, or indulging myself with the latest John Grisham novel.
It's time we stopped blindly privileging reading as a culturally and intellectually "better" activity than watching TV or using the internet. Certainly, I wouldn't give up the hours I spend reading every day. But used properly alongside traditional literacy-based education and recreation, technology and the media can be rewarding, informative and improving.
After all, as a postcard I picked up in London pronounces, "God Almighty HATES book lerners".
BBC Online discussion of NOP report
Okay, I suppose we must start by saying that the statistics used by NOP are all based on self-reported activity. But even so, shouldn't we be concerned that the UK's reported time spent reading is very near the bottom of the scale, while the reported time spent watching TV is an hour and a half more than the global average?At first glance, this does seem worrying. 5.3 hours a week reading is less than an hour a day, while 18 hours watching TV works out at more than two and a half hours.
But what does NOP mean by 'reading'? Doesn't this in all likelihood include magazines, newspapers, trashy romance novels and thrillers? It's too easy to place reading as a pursuit way above watching TV, yet I can think of a lot of quality television programming from which I've profited far more than from reading Heat magazine whilst waiting in my local Chinese takeaway, or indulging myself with the latest John Grisham novel.
It's time we stopped blindly privileging reading as a culturally and intellectually "better" activity than watching TV or using the internet. Certainly, I wouldn't give up the hours I spend reading every day. But used properly alongside traditional literacy-based education and recreation, technology and the media can be rewarding, informative and improving.
After all, as a postcard I picked up in London pronounces, "God Almighty HATES book lerners".
posted by EJ at 11:16 pm
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