The Media's Mixed Messages.

I suppose it isn’t surprising that so many of the TV adverts, idents, preview sequences etc at this time of the year feature snow. That’s because snow is attractive; snow is cutesy, comfy and Christmassy. Snow sells products and productions.

Ah, but then the Met Office forecasts a band of real snow crossing the country tomorrow and the media leap into hype mode. Tomorrow is going to be bad. If you worry about nothing else tonight, worry about tomorrow because it’s going to snow! Suddenly snow is ugly, snow is disruptive, snow is even dangerous. Remain indoors! (That’s for fans of Mitchell and Webb.)

Well, I agree. Snow is ugly and disruptive. It’s a damn nuisance. But then I never claimed that it was cutesy, comfy and Christmassy, did I?

And incidentally, one of the headlines on the TV text pages covered a bit of a shock/horror story about temperatures in Britain having fallen below freezing last night. ‘Sub-zero’ was the preferred term. Sounds more polar, doesn’t it? And the default verb is always ‘plunged.’ OK, so can anybody explain to me why the fact that a country situated as far north as Labrador and Siberia had freezing temperatures at night and in the winter should be considered newsworthy? Tonight is a little colder. Whatever will they write tomorrow?