The sting in the tale
It's not often that a story jumps up and grabs you in ways you didn't expect, but the death of Steve Irwin has certainly done that.
Relatively well known already to children as The Crocodile Hunter, , , and the have taken us all by surprise by being phenomenally popular.
On the web, for which we have more reliable story-specific statistics, this has been our biggest-performing story for months, bar none.
Some stories have been read 50,000 times in a day, which for Newsround is a very large number.
And we did one of our regular classroom visits last week, where we show children photos of personalities and ask them to name them the person and say why they are famous.
Tony Blair: they thought they recognised him but couldn't quite say what he did.
Gordon Brown: one child managed to identify him as "Jordan Brown". The well-known glamour politician?
But Steve Irwin: they all knew him, and more to the point, all knew the precise details of how he died. It seemed that he was relatively famous beforehand, but in death has become an international celebrity.
So because of this interest, we have sent our reporter, , to Australia to report on the memorial service.
We don't do a lot of foreign trips, so this is a big decision for us; but given that we normally travel for disasters, wars and conflicts, we appreciate being able to report on something a bit different, albeit something very sad for Steve's friends, family and fans.
Adam will do three reports for Newsround on TV, including a build-up piece today, and will be talking to children in the UK via our blog.
We know that when children get interested in a news story, they want to know everything about it, all the time. We hope our additional coverage will meet that need.
Comments
Yes, steve is famous in Nepal also among all age group. when he dies people express their deep grief towards him. it means if you worked hard, if you do adventerous work people will always remember you.
this example can make great impression in children's mind.
Steve Irwin was a man of indomitable courage. They were very few men in his league. The aura of being totally fearless had fascinated children all over the world even before his tragic death. Of course actual stories of his bravery are totally different from war-scenes. People are tired of war, suffering and misery. But his dare-devil escapades with crocodiles had touched people's hearts, especially his special love for them, and his exploits will continue to be read for a very long time to come. The memorial service will remind people that bravery always shines whether in life or in death.
This story is NOT newsworthy and was not reported accurately at all by the media. What it was really about was an exceptionally stupid man died as anyone with the least common sense knew he inevitably would by perpetually taking unnecessary insane risks with very dangerous animals. He even subjected his own infant son to it in what can only be described as a truely shabby publicity stunt. That he was glorified by the media demonstrates how it inculcates worthless values into children and then wonders why they behave the way they do. You want to know why dangerous illegal drugs are a pandemic? Ask the very successful publicity agent for four shaggy haired one time musicians whose earnings far exceeded their musical talent.
If popularity is all that matters to you, I presume that from now on, the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ news page will be attempting to mimic the Sun? I await the new Page 3 section with anticipation.
Steve will be unmistakeably missed but if a person has to go it is always best to die among that which he adored.."Animals" not in a plane nor illiness..But just like the Almighty wanted it...
I wonder how many of the above contributors are part of the target demogaphic of Newsround? Many kids were upset over the death of someone they liked from the TV. If reporting on stories of interest to children isn't what Newsround should be doing, then what should it do??
I'm hoping we don't hear that inane and ridiculously trite phrase, "he died doing what he loved". No he didn't: he died pulling a stingray barb out of his chest, probably while in intense pain. Nobody ever dies doing what they loved: they die doing what they hoped would never happen.
The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ blog about sending a reporter to cover steve irwin is just a rather bad justification for a junket/boom doggle..whatever you call it in the UK. The reporter gets a free vacation in Australia reporting on someone who quite franky is not newsworthy. There are many more important things such as Darfur, Iran, the UN, even stories about Cuba...but a dead australian entertainer?
Please ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ, wake up and get real. How about 'live' coverage of the Thai coup, the Zuma trial etc!
Gosh, what strange ideas some people have of Steve Irwin's appeal, and faults. It wasn't that he was fearless, or some sort of warrior, but that he knew what he was doing in exotic places and explained it. Surely the thing was that he made the world seem understandable, not less dangerous, but where dangers could be understood and coped with. For children, curious, seeking hope, surrounded by larger, unexplained, and sometimes very irrational and dangerous seeming events, places and people, that would have huge appeal.
Could Newsround not find anyone nearer to the memorial service to report it suitably, rather than jetting its own reporter all that way? What a mixed, incomprehensible message that must send the viewers! Have you explained why he actually died? What he had failed to understand?
It doesn't seem to me to reflect well on Newsround that you mock children you visit for feedback for getting one syllable of a politician's name wrong. Children best understand what matters to them, although a few just eat up and remember information in case it will be important. With children having no vote and no influence, and politics changing so fast, why should most politicians' names fit that criteria for most children? Can you imagine Tony-v-Gordon being the hot topic in most schoolyards? Isn't it actually a rather accurate assessment on their part of what matters for them, which, if they do it as well later in life could bode well for society? Could it be that you want them to be interested in what is important to you, which tends to be all too typical of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ news?