Seeing as I am in England for the week, I decided to watch a blog on The Times Web site. I came across a video diary of Matthew Hoggard and decided to comment on its content. If you are not familiar with him, he is a English cricket player and the diary was about his team arriving in Sri Lanka for a match. Now I soon came to realize this diary was an amateur submission done by the well-known cricket player and I am sure The Times felt it was all in good fun.
This 8-minute video was actually a good choice in highlighting and representing what not to do or post on your newspapers Web site. I imagine the submission rules are a little less strict in England as they are in the States; however, I was literally shocked to watch this. There was swearing, obscene gestures and overall foul behavior by the interviewer and his colleagues. I am in no way an evangelist for appropriate material on the Web nor do I over analyze what is considered crude. Let me move on and describe the actual footage.
The audio was shot and you could barely hear the dialogue (regardless of thick accents) and it was very hard to get past the language. The video coordination was atrocious and while I know this was done overseas, the resolution and noise gave me a headache. You could not follow the story line and there was actually no purpose to its making at all.
Now I know this all sounds a little harsh and perhaps these chaps were just goofing around. Be this as it may, I feel as a well-respected newspaper and its companion Web site, the online monitors should be a little more careful on what they deem is newsworthy.
On the other hand, this could be loads of fun for a fellow cricket follower or a sports enthusiast. However, I am the latter and I saw no sports references other than teammate jaunting and unappealing men in jerseys.
Below is the link…see for yourself and if you disagree, I will be happy to receive feedback.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article2979033.ece
