Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Blogging in Television Drama

This evening saw me nurse a can of something cold, fizzy and apt to inebriate while I watched Holby City. In itself, this is nothing remarkable, except for one thing ...

... it was the first time I saw a blogger portrayed in a drama!

This is a drama series set in a hospital. Usual stuff -  limbs falling off, barf in kidney bowls, doctors and nurses getting jiggy. And tonight a blogger.

The character was a patient with some icky condition or other, and so far as I could tell (I missed the first few minutes), was a medical 'guinea pig'. He was blogging his experience, every step of the way. He was portrayed as a nerd, as a fat bloke, as annoying, as a little bit know-it-all, and spoke often about his duty to 'his audience'. So dedicated to his 'audience' was he that when undergoing a surgical procedure, opted (nay pleaded) for an epidoodle instead of full knock-out gas. He wanted to blog his experience, you see.

He expired, and shuffled off his mortal coil right their on the gurney, giblets in dishes. RIP

Is this how BBC script-writers regard us bloggers? Are they right? Are we regarded as possessed demons? The doctor's view on blogging was enshrined simply in the words "power without responsibility". Largely true, I think.  I will leave this here - and mentioned it only for interest. If you want to see all of it, get BBC iPlayer and have a watch. 

(As an aside, it also portrayed a deaf girl in a really very helpful 'I might be deaf but I am still normal' way - marvellous)

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