Harry Potter hype?
Newsround has long been associated with breaking news about Harry Potter, not least because our reporter has set himself up as something of a world expert on Harry Potter. He can get through to people in Bloomsbury, Warner Bros and even JK's office faster than anyone we know.
This has meant that we have tried to take a step back from too much Harry Potter coverage in recent months and years, because we don't want Newsround to be known only for that story, and also because we don't want to be seen to be pushing a "product".
But it still amazes me that, whenever we have a Potter story, the response is astonishing.
On Thursday, we were the first news organisation in the world to confirm that JK Rowling had announced the title of the seventh and final book. . had started moving upwards before we'd even finished publishing the page.
We are watching appear in our inbox at a rate of several a second.
There's a worldwide web of fans who are out there, ready to pounce on any Potter story as soon as it's published. We aren't trying to hype him, honest. But we just can't avoid the power of the web response.
Comments
Harry Potter = Drivel
Drivel seems to be the new opiate of the masses.
Tim ... no-one cares.
I think that she will be writing some more after next Wednsesday, December 27, 2006
So the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ does not want to be seen to be 'pushing a product'. Maybe you could explain the journalistic values which have led you to put Mark Ramprakash winning (the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ series) Strictly Come Dancing as a main article on your news home page ? More accurate to say that the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ does not want to be seen pushing a product unless it profits directly from it.
You should be more concerned with the politically correct nonsense you push at peoples children. My oldest pointed out that if newsround was anything to go by then there's not one white child in the country.
How does the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ profit from putting the result of Strictly Come Dancing on the front page?
Clearly people do care, 'Viewer', otherwise 5990 people wouldn't have voted in the poll and he wouldn't be getting comments "at a rate of several a second" would he?
Does the first poster work for a rival publisher?
"Harry Potter = Drivel
Drivel seems to be the new opiate of the masses."
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What utter rubbish!
To Jim-UK,
Presumably if you were growing up in the 70s and 80s you were astute enough to notice that there were no black people in the country?
David (comment 4) - Newsround reported on the results of both X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing, because we know that children are obsessed by both, and would definitely like to know the outcome if they had missed it. It's not political news; but it's news enough to children.
Jim-UK (5) - That's a real hot potato: the representation of race on-screen. I was going to reply within this comment, but when (in my bath this morning!) I thought about what to say, I realised it would take too long - so I'll write a blog entry on the subject in the new year.
Thankyou Tim, something to look forward to in the new year.
In reply to M...
I did my growing up in the 70s and 80s and remember the lack of non white faces on TV very well, however two wrongs don't make a right. I would rather race didn't come into it at all but that's never going to happen.
If the multicultural thing is pushed too hard at people it will cause resentment and will achieve nothing except to give the likes of the BNP more ammunition. Newsround is a good example of this, while I'm sure their intentions are good it could also be used by some to convince people we're being overrun.
I cant understand all the hype about Harry Potter i havent seen any the films but there seems to be a lot of them hopefully theres not much left to go